New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-03
OLD WORLD FOREST LESSONS.

An impressive object lesson, threefold In
scope against our mad destruction Of forests
comes to US from the Old World. One is in the
Indian famine. What causes the famine?
Drouth And what causes the drouth? The an
swer is in the dryness of the treeless plains and
in the abundant moisture of the forest and jun
gle The bewldering increase of populatio
under the benign peace Of British rule has in
creased proportionately the demand for arabic
land, and to supply that demand forest and
jungle have been swept away by thousands Of
square miles. And now come drouth and famine.
Another lesson comes from Egypt. The Nile is
drying up Not only does it never even approx
innate to the height and depth it knew in ancient
times. but it is perceptibly dwndng now from
year to year Why? Because in those remote
wildernesses toward the sources Of the great
river forest destruction is proceeding at a rate
unrivalled even by our own orstrus goaded tree
slayers. And the third is from the Congo, where
the seemingly inexhaustible forests have al
ready suffered such ravages that men are now
talking of the need of protective measures.
We have only to look at Persia and at the
Sahara to see the full fruition of the forest de-
stroying policy. Once Persia was the most
fertile land of Asia. we'll watered and richly
wooded Once the Sahara was the granary Of
Africa and of Europe. To-day they are barren
sands. They are still traversed by rivers, but
these flow far beneath the surface. Here and
there they rise sufficiently to maintain small
GASES. Elsewhere they are hidden below sands
as dry and sterile as furnace floor, through
which, however, II well be sunk, the subter
ranean stream is surely tapped. Wherever by
artificial irrigation the area Of vegetation, and
especially of woodland. is extended Nature
gladly responds with return toward her
former benign conditions. The French in the
Sahara are taking advantage Of this fact, and
are actually making measurable progress toward
reclamation of that desert. IT is reasonable to
believe that through irrigation and reforesting
conditions may be reached in which artificial
irrigation will cease to be necessary for nature
will do the work she used to do before her
principles Of climatic economy were outraged
by artificial deforestation.
These lessons, all three of them are directly
applicable to the United States We have act
uauy known famine in some of the Western
States through the malign effects of drouth.
Some of our streams are dwindling as in the
Nile, and threaten to vanish entirely as those
of the Sahara have done. And if in the stupen-
dous arboreal wildernesses of the Congo it is
becoming necessary to devise protective
ures, what shall be said of such necessity in
country so recklessly denuded Of its woodlands
as our own? The laws of nature cannot be VIC
lated with impunity. She gave the forests as
mediums Of natural irrigation. IF we destroy
the means lose the end. The law is mex
orable Men now see trickling rills where in
their boyhood they saw full trimming streams.
And they also see bare sun scathed hillsides
where then they dense primeval forests.
It is cause and effect nothing more. But should
not rational men learn the lesson?