Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-25
FOSTERS WEATHER.
An Average Storm viii be Here
About the 24th Inst.
A. COOL WAVE WILL FOLLOW.
An Early Spring May Be Expected-nf
Planters Could Hold Their Cotton
They Would Make Money by It.
Drouths and Remedies.
Icopyrighted 1sga by W. T. FOgter.1

kIOpyElBuLtu lcSS Dy W. L. O5befI
grecial to the Gazette.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. Feb. 19-My last letter
rave forecasts of the weather for the storm
wave due to cross the continent from 10th
IN DIST, and the cool wave due to cross the
continent from 18th TO ed. The next dis
turbance will reach the Pacific coast about
the I'd, cross the Western mountains by
the close of the 23d. the great Central val
levs from oath to 26th, and reach the At
iantic states about the 9th.
This will be an average storm, and its
force viii begin to rapidly increase on the
9Th and 2Sth, as it moves out on TO the At
lantic ocean
The cool wave following it win cross the
western mountains about the 25th, the great
central valleys about the 9th and the At
Iantic states about the Goth. It will extend
far into the Southern states, causing frosts
that viii do some damage.
An early spring may be expected. March
and the first part Of April will be very IA
yOrable TO growing crops. But during the
later growing season rainfall will be def
Gent n many places: so much so that, in
various localities, the crops of 1892 will be
short
Owing to the spectators rings in New
York and other great cereal trade centers,
cotton IS ruinously low. The crop, for the
purpose Of speculation, has been largely
oVerestimated.
If the planters could hold their cotton,
produced last year, am confident that they
would get good price for it in the fall, for
have no doubt that short crop will be pro-
duced this year.
The government fails in its duty when it
fails to protect all classes of its citizens
from the ravages of cormorants who pre-
vent the laws Of supply and demand from
regulating prices.
DRoUTHs AND THEIR REMEDIES.
There are two reasons why this an OPP
foIs 4 he
IS that the time approaches for tree plant
ing, and the ether IS prospect of de-
fciency of rainfall this year in parts of the
United States.
I have dis cussed the influence of the arid
districts on the drouths of the great central
valleys, the influence of trees, cultivated on
the plains, in restoring those arid countries
10 fertility, and the next step calls Tor
discussion of the natural forests Of the
Western mountains.
The legends of the Aztecs tell us that
those people, when occupying the western
mountains, with their center of population
about Great Salt Lake in Utah, including
the Colorado River Valley and the table
lands between the Rockies and the Sierras,
destroyed the timber from the effects of
which the lakes and rivers dried up, and
those people were compelled to abandon
the country as were the Aryan tribes, our
ancestors, compelled to abandon the table
land of Asia, now called the Desert Of Cobb,
from the same causes.
The Aztecs removed to Mexico, and were
so impressed with the cause of the blight
IN that country from which they migrated,
that they enacted stringent laws protecting
the timber in Mexico.
1t is also well known that since white
men occupied the great basin of the Salt
Lake country the growth of trees has been
encouraged by Mormon laws, from the
effects of which Great Salt lake has in
creased seven or eight feet in depth.
The particular point to which 1 desire to
direct attention is this: The timber on
both sides of the Rocky mountains is being
rapidly destroyed. This will dry up all the
streams that enter the Missouri river from
the west
With the streams that flow eastward out
of the Rocky mountains dried up, there
will be no water for irrigation, and this will
not prevent tree planting on the plains, but
viii destroy great tracts of rich farming
lands now under cultivation near the foot
hills of the Rockies.
1t requires but moderate reasoning facul-
ties to discern great increase of the
drouths in the great central valleys, in
Guiding all the country of the great lakes,
unless the destruction of timber in the
Rockies and Sierras and their great plateaus
IS stopped.
We are idly floating toward the Niagara
of destruction, toward that deSolation that
now holds the Great Sahara in its wither-
ing grasp. Eminent American citizens
have made this declaration, but they take,
rs 4 tasis Of their prediction, the desTnc-
ton of the Northern piuerieS, but the de-
struction of Western forests and the plant
ing of trees in the arid districts will have
ten times the influence on our climate that
will the same conditions on our Northern
boundaries.
The destruction of northern pineries will
decrease the rainfall in the countries where
of water in the Mississippi and the great
lakes, but will not very greatly affect the
rainfall in other parts of the country, eX-
cept. perhaps, Minnesota, North Dakota |
and Montana, while the destruction of the |
forests in the western mountains will de- !
crease the rainfall in every state from the |
Gulf TO the British line and from the Ale |
ghanies 10 the Rockies.
Every person who owns lot, an acre or |
q farm can do something toward retarding |
the encroachmeuts of drouths by planting |
: trees, for every tree IS an armed soldier |
standing sentinel and doing battle against |
that great enemy, whose hendiSh design |
ever Is to cover up fertile lands with drift |
ing sands, turning them into whitening |
deserts.
If every such owner of land will cause
one tree 10 grow where none grew before, |
or two trees TO grow where one grew be- |
fore, repeating the good work every year, |
present fertile country protected from the |
desert sands.
Children should be taught the value of |
trees and the wickedness OF wantonly de-
Gtroying them. BY trees I mean all kinds
and sizes. from the hazel twig to the mon
arch of the forest. Protect all the trees
and plant more. Cultivate those that Will
pay best for food, furniture or building pur-
poses. Fruit trees are rs good as any.
When Arbor day comes devote your time
20 tree planting, and as it approaches hold
meetings for the purpose of discussing the
subject and enthusing your neighoors with
its Importance. Every debating society,
farmers organization and board OF trade
should at least give one evening to the dis
cussion of this subject between this and
Arbor day, and on that day there should be
thousands of speeches made. Preachers
can find pertinent texts, especially in the
Old Testiment, from which to discuss this
subject.
Our people do not realize the danger there
is in destroying our forests and increasing
the amount Of cultivated lands without
largely increasing the cultivation OF groves.
Get ready TO plant trees.