Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1903-05-11

Wants the Proof
Il have read with interest. the arti-
Gle by President Worst on tree plant
ing. | would like Mr.. Worst to furnish
me proof. on a scientific basis that
trees. growing on the high table lands
of North Dakota, will produce rainfall
To assert anything is easy; to prove
a fact is sometimes difficult matter
This tree business causing rainfall
always reminds me of the myth of the
lost art 1t hard ming copp r, e
thing no living man is able to prove"
To this Hon. J. H. Worst, of the
Agricultural College responds as fol
lows:
| Mr.. Witherow demands scientific
proof. Frankly | cannot prove it, No
one can. Life is too short ! can only
cite the general conviction of careful
observers and students of climatic
phenomena in many countries and COW
ering long periods of time 1t is safe
to attach importance to the deductions
of men who make a close study of spe-
cial phenomena especially when their
conclusions acord with historic facts
Mr. Witherow would hardly contend
that if the great plains region of the
United tates We're thicfly wooded in
stead of treeless prairie, the climatic
conditions would remain as at present
with regard to rainfall. winds, and at
mosphere humidity If ten per cent
of this vast area, or even less, We're
converted into forests, he would hardly
contend that it would not produce
climatic changes in a corresponding
degree.
Countries that were once wooded
but have been denuded of timber have
certainly undergone remarkable eli
matte changes. The change has al
ways been toward the conditions that
usually prevail in plains countries
whether the denudation occurred with
in few years or within several cen
turies. To restore the timber to the
denuded areas would be to restore the
climatic conditions prevailing before
denudation took place, and it would
also change the conditions of a treeless
plain in corresponding manner and
in the same direction
After making thorough examina
tiOn of authorities ! am convinced that
if 10 per cent or even less of our coun
try was converted into forests, L
would result in greatly increased at
mospheric humidity and increased
, moisture holding capacity of the soil
= and consequently less necessity 70
] rain as well as greater liability O
rain. The forests would work thu
twO-fold benefit. Yet this is not sci
entific proof that forests would in
crease ~ rainfall nor even improv
the landscape or be of any economi
D advantage to the state Icannot prov,
scientifically that timber country ha
Z advantages over a prairie country, O
visa versa. | submit some Of the con
. clusions however, of men who hav,
i. given the subject larger attention thar
n perhar~ - # us concerned in this
1 controversy
Y Professor Robert Ellis Thompson, in
his Elements of Political Economy
pages AZ and 4S summarizes as fol
/, , lows: The fertility Of country may
i, We destroyed by stripping it of its
trees, which seem to affect very great
;. ly the amount of rain that falls on its
] surface. In some parts of upper India
q the trees have been cut away, the wells
: have sunk, the rainfall has ceased
!, and the country threatens to become
!, a Wilderness The Punjaub seemed
|, likely meet the same fate; when the
British conquered it not single tree
8 was observed in it's vast area and
D the country was rapidly becoming a
: desert, when its plantation was begun
and the waste arrested Numidia, the
a Plain of Babylon and Judea are in
o stances of countries once proverbially
O fertile, and now barren (it is believed
s through denudation. When European!
{. occupied the Cape Verde and Canar!
" Islands. and St Helena they fOun(
them well wooded and fertile AS thu
trees have been recklessly cut down
r. droughts have become common, ant
a. the capacity of the islands to supper
IS large population has disappeared
IN The increasing sterility of parts @
France. of Lombardy and large di:
=, tricts of Spain, is ascribed to the sam
I'd cause. In Lombardy it has been foun
Is that the DEGRADATION of the cOuntr
on contributes to the rapidity and volun
he in which it's light and friable soil
washed into the Adriatic by the