The record-union., 1899-09-04

acter of the soil or sub-soil. The gen.
erai conclusion was that although the
mean temperature may be unaltered,
the distribution of heat at given times
may be affected so as to produce
modification of the climate, and that
leaves certainly are a powerful and
insisteht cause of moisture in the air,
the least reduction Of temperature oc-
casioning precipitation Of moisture
eyaporating from them, which on fall
ing penetrates the soil directly when
it is permeable, and through the inter
yention of the roots when it is not
In the United States the destruction
of woodlands has given rise to re-
markable phenomena. For instance,
the long beach at Plymouth, when the
Pilgrims landed there. was covered
with trees, and an island of considera-
BILE extent outside of the beach was
also wooded. After the trees were cut
the sea washed the island away so that
it was covered by every tide, and the
beach became so narrow in some
places that the heavy seas broke
through it, and it had to be protected
by artificial means. The security of
the harbor became endangered. A writ
er on this subject related that when
travelling in the West some sixty years
ago he met a gentleman from Ken
lucky, who spoke of an instance with
in his knowledge in which a perennial
spring had made its appearance where
at the early settlement of the region
there was none. Kentucky, when its
first colonists planted themselves with
in its limits, was a country in which
extensive prairies, burned over every
year by the Indians, predominated
In an address delivered in 1865, Pro-
fessor A. Winchell of Michigan, said:
THE earliest and most pervading ten
dency exerted by man in the modifica-
tion of the soil of our State is the de-
struction of the forests. Forests are
the garments of the soil. They pro-
tect it equally from excessive cold and
from excessive heat. They shelter the
SHOWS from the drifting power of the
wind, and are thus enabled to await
the lapse of the rigorous winter with
their feet wrapped in fieecy blanket.
Every autumn they pay back to the soil
with interest all that the soil has ex-
pended upon them. They fan off the
burning rays of the summer sun, and
restrain the fervor of the atmosphere.
They shield the soil from the evapor-
ative influences, and maintain an equal
degree of humidity. On sloping sur
faces they bind together the soil and
resist the denudations of torrents. All
these conditions and results are
changed when the forests are removed.
The sweeping blast of winter strikes
the earth with the fury of an invisible
demon-drives off the natural covering
of the soil, and exposes the roots and
stumps of vegetation to an unwonted
and often disastrous trial. The cir
cumstances of springtime are changed
The soil feels every slight f1uctuation
of mperature-freezing by night, and
thawing by day-instead of reposing in
peaceful slumber under its coat of snow
until the spring And then when
summer comes the burning sun rapidly
drinks up the moisture of the soil and
the whole air becomes torrid and dry.
Instead of a regular humidity and gen.
tie rains, the agency of man has sub
stituted alternating thirst and flood.
And on the hill tops, where the natural
| ligatures of the soil have been re-
moved, sudden torrents wash it away,
and score the earth with ugly gorges
| and ravines."
A poet of our country, referring to
! the effect of stripping the soil of its
trees, put these lines in the mouth of
one Of the aboriginal inhabitants:
Before these fields were shorn and titled,
Full to the brim our rivers flowed;
The melody of waters filled
The fresh and boundless wood
| And torrents dashed. and riyuetS played,
And fountains spouted in the shade.
| Those grateful sounds are heard no more;
| The springs are silent in the sun;
| The rivers by the blackened shore,
With lessening current run.
| The realm our tribes are crushed to get
| May be barren desert yet.