Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-03-24

ably attributable to cultivation which
is nearly coeXtensive with the cleared
lands. But this condition of general
tlllage does not prevail in the remote
northwest. In that uninha bited region
there is scarcely one cultivated acre to
the square mile. Consequently the
plowed clearings are too limited per-
ceptibly to counteract the injurious eff
fects of Telling the forests.
In brief discussion of the climatic
conditions which affect the stage of wa
ter in the Mississippi. it is quite unnec-
essary to advert to the influences which
mountain ranges, irrespective of woods,
exert upon precipitation. inasmuch as
there are no mountains near the sources
of the Mississippi.
With an equality of condition in area,
temperature. friability and rainfall, it
seems probable that there would be
greater eXhalation of moisture from the
cleared than from wood land. There
Is less evaporation in the shade than in
the open air; and the trees only exhale
the water which comes to their roots
by the mysterious process of diffusion.
In the densest forest the roots occu-
Ply only a small portion of the ground,
but diffusion is active among all the
atoms of the soil. 1t would certainly
seem that the free evaporation from the
whole surface of the ground would be
more rapid than Transportation through
foliage of moisture drawn from rel
atively limited spaces. Under the
assumed conditions, unless the absorb
ent force of the capillary attraction is
vastly than thn 1iffnSir-a
ergy of the soil, the amounts of tran
spiration and evaporation would APP
proximately correspond to the proper
ton that subsists between the areas of
the roots and of the given tract.
Even in the most respectable and
civilized climates, there are surprising
instances of misbehavior. Turbulent
cyclones create tumults in the most
peaceful and best ordered states of the
atmosphere. But, though there
are apparent exceptions to the
normal actions of the elements
which it battles the present
efforts of science to explain,
these uncommon phenomena do not at
all impair our confidence in the general
stability of natural laws. The con-
stancy with which nature provides for
the wants of vegetable life would seem
to justify the belief that the showers
which refresh the woodlands are more
frequent than those that water the open
plains But it is certain that, even if
the forests do not increase the rainfall,
they at all events insure it's slow and
useful distribution. This is a highly
important fact which statesmen DESTROYS
of improving the navigability of the
Mississippi river can not afford to ig-
more. The Importance of the subject
invites the grave consideration of our
national legislators. If more stringent
forestry laws would at all serve to
maintain the volume of the Mississippi,
then congress would be faithless to it's
duty, if it failed to enact them. A jul
dicious preservation of northern wood
lands might perhaps prevent the ex-
penditure of additional millions in
deepening the channel of the river.
The improvement of the Mississippi is
now a sufficiently arduous undertaking,
without the increased difficulties with
which a still lower stage of water
would invest the problem