Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1901-08-08
WIZ rnr cLIMarn onANaEs.
Professor Uhier Attributes II to Destruc-
tlon of Forests.

troiehsor Duier Attributes IL to Destruc-
tlon of Forests.
Baltimore Sun. :;
what do scientists regard as the
chief renson for our gradually changing
climatic conditions of the last 40 or SO
years -the warmer winters, the hot,
sticky, moist summers Dr. Phjlip
II. Uhler, provost OF the Peabody Insti-
tute, ard president OF the Maryland
Academy OF Sciences, was asked.
There's no doubt, - he said THAT
our climate has changed greatly. When
| was boy our winters were much
colder than any we have been having
lately. IL was the usual thing in those
days for Spring Gardens to be frozen
over in the winter. We had fine skat-
ing there, and once In a while when we
had an extra cod snap. we would have
a chance for n skim over the ice clear
down to Annapolis There was nothing
unusual in those days In the sight of a
sledge laden down With wood being
drawn across the ice from Anne Arun.
del county. But nobody has seen any
thing of that sort In recent winters.
Then look at our summers. We
used to think they were pretty hot
But 30 degrees seemed pretty high up
in these days.
'''Thers used to be an idea prevalent
among physicists that there was 40
year cycle of SEASONS but that idea
has been dropped. One thing IS abso-
lutely certain. and that is that IN the
country, where there is great deal of
vegetation, there IL corresponding
distribution OF water, and oonse luently
cooler atmosphere.
Scientists hold various views of the
reasons for the changing climatic con.
ditions. Unquestionably one OF the
causes OF the increase in temperature is
the disappearance OF the forests. As
result Of the destruction Of the forests
a change is made in the distribution
OF surface water, / don't mean by that
water that runs over the surface, but
just the opposite-water that is held
there. 1t is only tho water that is
caught by the vegetation and by the
soil and that is he'd there that does
any good in reducing the temperature.
The land around Gwynn's Falls, from
the mouth of the falls up, was Mt one
time densely wooded 1t is not so any
longer. Twenty-Five or thirty years
ago there were as many as 100 rings
that fed the little channels that empty
into the falls between the Powhatan
Mills and the mouth of the falls. Today
you can find scarcely any springs in that
whole strip, and consequently the little
channels carry no permanent water
After heavy rainfall they may carry
little stresri, but ordinarily they are
either dry or carry very minute thread
of water.
"And il is not only the tiny streams
that show The effect of the cutting
down of our Maryland woods. Years
ago some of our large rivers and
streams were nayieable to greater dis.
tances than they are today. You
wouldn't want more striking illustra-
tion of the destructive effects that
follow In the wake of the denudation
Of the forests than was given by the
flood of 1868 on the patapsco river. Up
to that time the Patapsco had been
nayigable as far as the Relay. There
wac chute at the mouth OF the river,
from which the grain aud tobacco
brought down wers loaded on the large
vessels. But the flood, with the load
OF debris and rocks aud soil that it
carried down with it, blocked the chan
mel aud II has not been navigable since.
That was the fiood during which people
noio dieNhou lfutu I'll but TUOsh Vi V0B1f
houses in ELLIOTT City.
But to trace it back to the cutting
down OF the trees: The hills about 81
or " miles up the river had been do
nuded Of their treeA. Two terrific
storms concentrated over these bare
hills and then condensed into one, The
people in that part of the country called
it cloud burst. There was nothing
on the denuded hills to break the force
of the storms. The water came down in
an immense tidal wave, filling up the
whole channel with the wreckage it
swept along with it.
when the trees go the earth is ex-
posed to the direct screening rays Of
the sun. Evaporation gots on much
more rapidly because there is nothing
to stop it. Take another illustration
from the neighborhood OF tho Relay.
A man bought some property out there
above the Relay. He had the hillside
cleared and proceeded to do his surfing
planting. That season his hillside was
as bare as the cobbestones in the
street are. The next year he put in
some clover, and he succeeded finally
in getting down to a fine subsoil. He
planted grapes and now has a thriving
vineyard. But the heat that heats down
on the hillside ia go intense that fire.
quently many of the leaves on the vines
die before the fruit ripens."