The Kemper herald. (Scooba, Miss.) 1875-1908, 1905-03-09
DESTRUCTION or FORESTS,
Western Woodlands Denuded Of Trees
and Enormous Loss Is the /
Result.

Result.
we have come to the end Of that dream
of the Observation-Disclosures of the supply
of farms and forests. Now, at immense
expense, Uncle Sam is engaged in stor-
ing the water that falls on the western
mountains to create fertility in regions
of barrenness in order that tillaDie lan1
may be provided for those who Will
make 1t fruitful. We-have become con-
scious suddenly, says the Boston her
aid, that our forest policy has peen
wasteful of almost Deyonu
possibility of calculation. The lesson
which many European governments
have learned that the destruction OF the
forests is a policy that tends to the N
poyerishment of the people, is now
borne in upon us with force. We are De.
coming aware of the truth OF natural
science that the mountain forests are
not only one important source OF tbe
fertility of the plains, but the guarantee
of its continuance, and the most perfect
security against freshets that hll the
beds Of rivers with earth and cause de-
structive overflow Of their banks, vast
ing the labor bestowed on roads II
structures and crops.
Ages have been required for the slow
| gathering on mountain sides OF the thin
soil which supports the growth OF fer-
| ests that in turn add an incrementto the
soil. When the forests are cut away
this double growth ceases. 1t is a com
mon opinion that a new growth OF trees
will at once begin and flourish. rms
is not the fact. Deprived of shade. ex-
posed to the sun and winds, its binding
network of living roots decaying, the
| soil is washed by the floods from the
| rocks. leaving them bare. Wherever
as has been the case over hundreds and
perhaps thousands of square miles, fires
have followed the lumberman's WORK,
and often have far overpassed the ex-
tent of it, the seeds of vegetable life are
destroyed. Irremediable baroness
succeeds. No longer does a spongy mold
absorb the rain and hold it, to be Slowly
drained away. The torrents of the
storm flow down the mountain sides I'M
checked and irresistible, doing vast
damage hundreds of miles away.
The most extensive, diversified and
valuable forest in the United States east
of the Mississippi river is that Oh the
southern Appalachian ranges, covering
an area estimated to be 100000 acres,
in Virginia. West Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, North Carolina, South Caro-
lima. Georgia and Alabama. Here are
the sources of great rivers that flow
southeasterly into the Atlantic, south
erly into the gulf of Mexico, and wind
ing through western Virginia, Tepnes-
see and Kentucky, constitute the feed
ers of the Ohio, a main tributary OF the
Mississippi, which also has its outlet
in the gulf. 1t is certain that the de-
mutation of these ranges of their noble
virginia. forest, in which are 1877 differ
ent varieties of trees, that have been
described by government experts, in
GLIDING the finest virginia. hardwood
groves on the continent, would, in the
Judgment of scientific men,, affect all
these states with serious and contin-
ming losses. Yet this work Of devasta-
ton is going on with increasing rapid
ity. and in a few years will be practic-
ally complete, unless 1t is arrested by the
appropriation of these mountain masses
as a government reservation, a step
which the states concerned are ready to
support and aid.
1t is estimated by the committee OF
the United States senate on forest
reservations that during the last year
floods in the rivers Of the Piedmont
plateau and the valleys of western Vir-
ginia and eastern Tennessee swept away
buildings, farms, bridges and woods ex-
ceeding in value the sum of $3.50 0 900,
and that a large part of this loss would
have been prevented if the forests about
the river sources had been preserved
and protected. The secretary OF agricul-
ture, in a report to the president, says
that more good soil is now washed from
these cleared mountain side fields dur
ing a heavy rain than during centuries
under a forest cover. This is saying
that the cleared lands are not perma-
nently available for farms. Their soil
is rapidly carried off. What becomes
of it? 1t makes unnavigable and use
less for commercial purposes hundreds
of miles of formerly navigable rivers. 1t
goes to fill up harbors that must be con-
t~inually dredged at large cost to be avail
able for shipping. The waterfall over
this range is very large, commonly about
100 inches in the year. Under natural
conditions it was drained off slowly;
under artificial conditions it rushes in
Ldeluges through the streams to the sea,
i source of harm instead of benefit.