Evening star., 1900-09-29
VALUE OF SHADE TREES
INFLUENCE ON GENERAL HEALTH
CAN HARDLY BE OVERRATED.
Natures Safeguard Against Life
BlightinH Draughts-A Pre-
ventive of Epidemics.
From the Literary Digest.


That shade is more healthful than sun
shine, provided the shade is caused by
trees is maintained in Health Culture by
Felix L. Oswald. DR.. Oswald calls atten-
ton at the outset to what he considers the
strange fact that not one of the religions
of the world gives a word of warning
against the folly of forest destruction. al
though the AK has turned 100000 square
miles of once fertile regions into deserts
and has made one-third of the eastern con-
Says DIR. Oswald:
Spain in the glory of her ancient wood
lands, the Eden of southern Europe
treeless Spain has become gehenna of
poverty and disease. Forest-shaded Sicily
begat athletes and philosophers, heroes and
merchant princes; Sicily in its present sun
blistered condition evolves chiefly bandits,
beggars and vermin. The entire coast re-
glon OF the Mediterranean has been clear
ed, with the result of losing four-fifths of
its former population and at least nine
tenths of its former productiveness.
The same in southern France, in Portu-
gal, Asia Minor. Mesopotamia, Armenia,
Persia and Hindustan.
1T might indeed be questioned If all hui
man follies and crimes taken together have
caused as much permanent mischief as the
insane destruction of natures safeguards
against life-blighting droughts A land with
out trees is in sad plight as fayed
animal. The new worlds wealth Of wood
lands is the chief guarantee Of its pros
perity-
Forests of shady leaf-trees mitigate ch-
matte extremes. and there is not the slight
est doubt that they attract rain showers. A
few hundred square miles of wooded dells
in the valley of the Rio de San Pedro, Peru,
enjoy an annual average of twenty inches
of rain. while in the adjoining desert of
Atacama droughts have been known to con-
tinue for six years. Ibrahim Pasha's tree
plantations In upper Egypt increased the
yearly rainfall from nine to fifteen inches
In Italy ii has decreased half; in some
districts of northern Africa Cthe ancient
! Numidia. for instance) at least four-fifths.
| Forests shelter misunderstanding birds and
prevent the destructive effects of inunda-
tions by absorbing rain showers that would
pour down from treeless slopes as from a
slate roof"
Even from a purely sanitary point of
| view, DR.. Oswald goes on to say. shade
| trees justify all the claims of their friends.
Leaves generate oxygen and absorb noxious
| gases. In towns like Savannah, Ga with
| its fourfold rows of stately forest trees
shading every principal street, sunstrokes
| are far less frequent than in the sun
| scorched Though more eievateO settle
| ments Of the prairie states.
Shade trees, too, prevent ophthalmia. Says
| the writer:
II am still haunted by the recollection Of
a scene in the harbor suburb of Girgenti,
| where children with red swollen eyelids
! were foraging in a dump pile and wrangling
! for bones with a number of equally blear-
| eyed dogs. There was not tree in sight.
| Far UP and down the undulating beach the
! heat of the sun made the air tremble and
| the glare Of its reflection from the refuse
| OF old salt pans was almost as affective as
| the glitter of a snow field. Yet on that
same spot Agrigentum, with it's population
of keen-eyed Greeks, fourished for 800
years. a city of gardens and groves, rival
| ing the wealth of Carthage, the mistress of
| the Mediterranean.
DIR. Oswald would also hold forest de-
| struction responsible for malaria. In many
| of It's forms. owing to the diluvium carried
| down by the mountain torrents to form
| pestilential marshes. He asserts that
among the sanitary equipments of a model
| dwelling house shade trees should rank witt
the best plumbers contrvances and that IN
| house in grove is worth twice the rent of
q house on a naked hillside. In conclusion
DIR. Oswald refers to the crusade against
| Lewis, and says:
! In his zeal for the propaganda of the
sunshine gospel he caused the destruction
/ of trees enough to supply a ffrst-class saw
| mill for number OF years. His objection
was founded on the belief that sunshine is
a microbe killer natures chief specific for
the cure of germ diseases; but in sparsely
/ wooded Hfndustan rays have not pre-
vented the spread of frightful epidemics
| They do not check the development of ma
laria germs in the fens of the Adriatic nor
of typhoid germs In the slums of our south
4 ern seaport towns.
| Nor would il be easy on that theory to
! explain the longevity Of our backwoodsmen
[ or OF the German foersters Government for
est Wardens), VINO vie In surrounding their
| cottages with over-arching leafy trees Not
| sun ray reaches the foerst terhaus from
! May to November: but in winter, when sun
shine Is really blessing, the screen opens.
or holds Its own just enough to mitigate the
| blasts OF the north wind"
Il