The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1903-07-02
The Cause of Floods.

1MG cause Oh n 1OOUSs
Ina paper Of especially timely interest
John P. Brown, secretary of the Inter
national Society of Arboriculture, pre-
diets that this country is now entering
upon a period Of disastrous floods,
which will become greater and greater
until the newspapers will contain items
of two or three lines in length such as
now come from China, ''It is estimated
that 100000 lives were lost in the re-
cent overflow Of the Yellow river" The
cause of the foods in China, he SAYS
is precisely the cause whose effect is
now being seen in this country-the
destruction Of the forests. The soil Of
China is unproductive because Of it's
treeIess condition, and he contends that
Americans have destroyed more timber
in sixty years than the Chinese have in
5000. We are now, he asserts, de
stroying $4,000 acres of forest daily, or
something over 100000 acres annual
each year. In other words, for ev-
cry tree we are planting we are de-
nuding over two acres of their trees,
and the time is not far distant when
this country will be as treeless as
China and as unproductive, according
to Mr.. Brown, as the deserts of Ari-
iona.
To the objection that the recent floods
in Kansas and South Carolina were not
caused by the lack Of trees, but by
cloudbursts, Mr.. Brown replies that it
is a well established fact that these
cloudbursts are caused by electrical
disturbances, and electrical disturb
ances, in turn, are caused largely by
the absence of trees in large bodies.
While it is impossible to tell to what
extent this is true, it is certain that the
influence of forests is very great upon
atmospheric conditions. Rains are
more regular in sections covered by
not so severe The rainfall is more
gradual and extends over a greater
time
Mr.. Brown calls attention to another
and even more serious result of the
destruction of the wooded area of the
country. This is the gradual erosion
of the soil, as we are told that, the
rains having washed the productive
soil into the river, the fields will be-
come sterile where they are now ex-
ceedingly fertile. The less fertile be-
come the fields, of course, the smaller
the population they will support The
vast volume of silt which annually
flows down such great rivers as the
Mississippi and Missouri represents the
ruin of thousands of acres of land up
stream which has lost it's anchorage
because of the denudation Of the hill
sides and the slopes. Acres upon acres
of productive soil are being emptied
111IO Tic gull VI hOAlCO Will d reg uldE-
ity which in the end, says Mr.. Brown,
must bring poverty upon the agricul~
tural classes up stream, and with the
poverty of the agricultural will come
the poverty Of all other classes
After making due allowance for the
overzeal Of the specialist it must be adj
mitted that the dangers which Mr..
Brown predicts are not altogether i'm
aginary. They are more real and
threatening than most people realize.
The remedy, of course, is to restore the
forests, but the planting Of 100000
trees annually while above 100000
acres are at the same time being de-
nuded will not do it. There ought to
be a tree planted for every one felled
by the woodman's ak.