Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1900-06-06
Lessons from Old World Forests.

The New York Tribune draws an
impressive object lesson from the
bitter experience Of the Old World in
the wanton destruction of the forests
impressive object lesson from the
one lesson, and in each is a warning
that America must heed. One is in the
Indian famine. What causes the
famine? Drouth. What causes the
drouth? The answer is in the dryness
of the treeless plains and in the album
dant moisture of the forest and jungle.
The bewildering increase of population
under the benign peace of British rule
has increased proportionately the de-
mand 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
mate to the height and depth it knew
in ancient times, but it is perceptibly
dWindling now from year to year.
Why? Because in those remote will
derncssrs toward the sources Of the
great river forest destruction is pro-
cccding at a rate unrivalled even by
our own tree slayers. And the third is
from the Congo. where the seemingly
ineNhauStible forests have already
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 destroying 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. Today they are
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. if a well be
sunk. the subterranean stream is sure
~ tapped. Wherever by artificial irri-
cation the area of vegetation, and es-
prcially of woodland is extended,
nature gladly responds with return
toward her former benign conditions.
Tho French in the Sahara are taking
advantage Of this fact, and are act
ually making measurable progress to-
| ward reclamation of that desert. 1t is
reasonable to believe that through irr-
CATION and rcforesting 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
We're outraged by artificial dcforesta-
| tion.
These lessons, all three Of them, are
Iliftliy dpIIlcdDit u tHt I nittu
| States. We have actually 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 en-
| tirely as those of the Sahara have
| done. And if in the stupendous
| arboreal WildernesSeS of the Congo, il
| is becoming necessary to devise pro-
| tective measures, what shall be said
| Of such necessity in a country so reck-
lessly denuded Of its woodlands as our
| own? The laws Of nature cannot be
violated with impunity. She gave the
| forests as mediums of natural irriga-
| tion. If we destroy the means we lose
| the end. The law is memorable. Men
now see trickling rills where in their
| boyhoOd they saw full Drumming
streams. And they also see bare. sun
scathed hillsides where then they saw
dense. primeval forests. 1t is cause
and effect. Nothing more. But should
| not rational men learn the lesson?
|