The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-16
The Green Mountains !
Preserve Their Beauty!
BosToN, Mass, October 3, 1889.

sides and SUBMITS. The name is dear to It's
people and to its sons who have gone to
other states to dwell. They are proud to
be called Green Mountain BOYS. That
name is interviewer with the whole history
Of the state. What associations cluster
around IL and inspire the love and patriot
ism of its sonsl But If the name is so cher
ished and beloved, how much more should
that feature of its mountains, their forests,
which makes the name appropriate be cher
ished and protected The writer, born in
the heart of the mountains, but living in
another state, returns to them yearly with
ever-increaNing admiration and fondness.
In the apprehension from what he sees and
hears that the axe of the lumberman may
before many years despoil the mountains of
their beauty, he ventures to suggest to the
people of the state that their highest inter
ests will be promoted by securing to them
selves and TO all who may come after them,
the ownership of the mountains and the
preservation of their forests.
But 1t is not for sentimental reasons alone,
however elevated and powerful. that the
people of Vermont should preserve the for
ests upon the mountains Their presence
is of the greatest Importance to the other
portions of territory; their destruction
would greatly reduce the value of the land
under cultivation. The history of other
countries proves this so conclusively that
if the people of Vermont would look into
their experience they could not fail to be
convinced that their true interests demand
that steps be Immediately taken to preserve
the forests which now clOthe the mountains
but which will soon disappear if the state
does not assert its powers to stop their de-
struction. The injury which many other
countries have suffered from the destruction
OF their forests was fully exhibited many
years since by one of Vermont's dis
tinguished men. the late George p. Marsh.
in book published twenty-five years ago,
lA.I
mences by reference to the healthfulness
and fertility of the lands around the Medi.
terranean Sea in the time of the Roman EN-
pire, and, contrasting them with the pres
ent condition, writes as follows: "If we
compare the present physical condition of
the countries OF which | am speaking, with
the descriptions that ancient historians and
geographers have given of their fertility
and general capability of mnistering to
human uses We shall find that more than
one-half of their whole extent-includinp
the provinces most celebrated for the pro-
fusion and variety. of their spontaneous and
their cultivated products and for the wealth
and social advancement of their inhabit-
ants, is either deserted by civilized man
and surrendered to hopeless desolation. or
at least greatly reduced in both productive
ness and population. Vast forests have dis
appeared from mountain spurs and ridges:
the vegetable earth accumulated beneath
trunks, the soil of the alpine pastures which
skirted and indented the woods, and the
mould of the upland fields, are washed
away; meadows, once fortified by irripa-
ton, are waste and unproductive, because
the clsterns and reservoirs that supplied
the ancient canals are broken, or the springs
that fed them dried up; rivers famous in
history and song have shrunk to humble
brooklets; the willows that ornamented and
protected the banks of the lesser water
courses are gone and the rivulets have
ceased to exist as perennial currents, be-
cause the little water that finds its way into
their old channels is evaporated by the
droughts of summer, or absorbed by the
parched earth, before it reaches the low
lands; the beds of the brooks have widened
into broad expanses of pebbles and gravel
over which, though i'll the hot season passed
dryshod, IN winter sealike torrents thunder:
the entrances of navigable streams are OBJ
structed by sandbars, and harbors, once
lnarts OF an extensive commerce, are shoaled
by the deposits of the rivers at whose
mouths they lie; the elevation of the beds
OF estuaries, and the consequently dimin-
lshed velocity of the streams which flow
into them, have converted thousands of
leagues of shallow sea and fertile lowland
into reproductive and miasmatic morasses."
In his third chapter, entitled "The
Woods" he sets forth exhaustively the i'm
portance of forests to the fertility of coun-
try, especially mountainous country, and
the evils which have followed and NAV he
expected to follow the destruction of for
ests cannot present even an epitome OF
the information there collected, but think
the people of Vermont should ponder well
what he has laid before them and heed his
warnings before it is too late. The titles of
some of his subdivisions indicate the i'm
portance OF the subjects which he considers,
Influence of the Forest on the Humidity
of the Soil" Influence of the Forest on
the Flow of Springs" 1.-THE Influence of
the Forest on Inundatinns;" Destructive
Action of Forests" Mountain Slides"
Principal Causes of the Destruction of the
Forest" utility of the Forest" From
one title, General Consequences of the
Destruction of the Forest" | must quote
largely. With the disappearance of the
forest all is changed. At one season the
earth parts with its warmth by radiation to
an open sky-receives, at another an i'm
moderate heat from the unobstructed RAYS
OF the sun. Hence the climate becomes ex-
cessive, and the soil is alternately parched
by the fervors of summer, and scared by the
rigors of winter. Bleak winds sweep unre.
sisted over its surface, drift away the snow
that sheltered it from the frost, and dry up
It's scanty moisture. The precipitation be
comes as regular as the temperature the
melting SHOWS and vernal rains, no longer
absorbed by loose and bibuOus mould
rush over the frozen surface and pour down
the valleys seward, instead of filing a re-
tentive bed Of absorbent earth, and storing
up supply of moisture to feed perennial
springs. The soil is barred of its covering of
leaves, broken and loosened by the plow
deprived of the fibrous rootlets which held
it together, dried and pulverized by sun and
wind, and at last eXhaused by new comb
nations. The face of the earth is no longer
sponge, but dust heap, and the floods
which the waters of the sky pour over il
hurry swiftly along its slopes, carrying in
suspension vast quantities of earthly par
ticles which increase the abrading power
and mechanical force of the current. and
augmented by the sand aud gravel of fall
ing banks, fill the beds of the streams, d.
vert them into new channels and obstruct
their outlets. The rivulets, wanting their
former regularity of supply and deprived OF
the protecting shade OF the woods, are
heated, evaporated, and thus reduced in
their summer currents, but swollen 10 rag
ing torrents in autumn and in spring
From these causes, there is IA constant deg
radiation of the uplands, and a consequent
elevation Of the beds of watercourses and
of lakes by the deposition of the mineral
and vegetable matter carried down by the
waters. The channels of great rivers be-
come unnavigable, their estuaries are
choked up, and harbors which once shell
tered large navies are shoaled by dangerous
sandbars, The earth, stripped of its Vege-
liable glebe, grows less and less productive
and consequently less able 10 Drotect itseli