Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-11-22
PRESERVE THE BEAUTY OF THE
GREEN MOUNTAINS.

|
mont owes its name to the verdure of
its mountains, to the forests which
clothe their sides and SUBMITS. The
name is dear to its 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 it and inspire the love and pat
riotism of its sons But if the name is
so cherished and beloved, how much
more should that feature of its noun
tains, their forests, which makes the
name appropriate be cherished and pro-
tected. The writer, born in the heart
of the mountains, but living in another
State, returns to them yearly with ever
increasing admiration and fondness.
and hears that the axe of the lumber
man may before many years despoil the
mountains of their beauty, he ventures
to suggest to the people of the State
that their highest interests will be pro-
NOTED by securing to themselves and to
all who may come after them, the owner
ship of the mountains and the preserva-
ton of their forests.
But it is not for sentimental reasons
alone. however elevated and powerful,
that the people of Vermont should pre-
serve the forests upon the mountains.
Their presence is of the greatest impor-
lance 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 expert
ences 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 noun
tains, but will soon disappear if the
State does not assert its powers to stop
their destruction. The injury which
many other countries have suffered from
the destruction of their forests was fully
exhibited many years since by one of
Nermont's distinguished men, the late
George p. Marsh, in book published
twenty-five years ago, entitled "Man
and Nature" He commences by ref
erence to the healthfulness and fertility
of the lands around the Mediterranean
Sea in the time of the Roman Empire,
and, contrasting them with the present
condition, writes as follows: eff we
compare the present physical condition
of the countries of which | am speaking
with the descriptions that ancient his
torians and geographers have given of
their fertility and general capability of
ministering to human uses, we shall
find that more than One-half of their
whole notwithstanding the provinces
most celebrated for the profusiOn 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 pro-
ductiveness and population. Vast for
ests have disappeared from mountain
spurs and ridges; the vegetable earth
accumulated beneath the trees by the
decay of leaves and fallen trunks, the
soil of the alpine pastures which skirted
and indented the woods, and the mould
of the upland fields, are washed away;
,naadnyrc nnca fortilizad bu irr;rot;n,
are waste and unproductive, because the
cisterns 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 hum
BILE brooklets; the willows that orna-
mented and protected the banks of the
lesser water-courses are gone and the
rivulets have ceased to exist as peren-
NAL currents, because the little water
that finds its way into their old chan
nels is evaporated by the droughts of
summer, or absorbed by the parched
earth, before it reaches the lOwlands
the beds of the brooks have widened in
to broad expanses of pebbles and gravel
over which, though in the hot season
passed dryshod, in winter sealilSe tor
rents thunder; the entrances of nav
igable streams are obstructed by sand
bars, and harbors, once marts of an ex-
tensive commerce, are shoaled by the
deposits of the rivers at whose mouths
they lie the elevation of the beds of es-
tuaries, and the consequently diminished
velocity of the streams which flow in
to them, have converted thousands of