Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-03-13
RUTHLESS DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS.
Why the Holy Land, Once " Flowing With
MIX and Honey" Is Now a Sterile Desert.

NAssN e4hhS sHOhSyS &c
1t has always been matter of sad
conjecture to the visitor to the Holy
Land why the sacred scenes of Bible
history are now desolate; why the
fertile hills and valleys where our
Saviour taught are barren wastes /;
why the rich plains and endless
groves of olive and fig trees of the
days of Abraham, Moses and the Old
Testament heroes are hopeless
desert to-day.
But the explanation of all this has
been recently figured out and laid
before an international Congress of
Scientists at Milan, and, incidentally,
warning sounded that the rich agri-
cultural land of America is threat
ened with the same fate. The secret
of it all lies in the ruthless destruo-
tion of the forests. When the trees
began to disappear in lcient Pales-
tine then began the ruin of the land.
Studying the purposes of forests in
nature, science is able to see why the
fertility of the laud ends when the
forest growth is destroyed. The
physical conditions of forest land
were found to be such that, owing to
the shelter from sun and wind, the
atmosphere is lgenerally colder and
damper than in the open country,
and evaporation consequently less.
1t is calculated that hectare of
forest land (2t aores) gives off every
day 81 cubic yards of oxygen and 81
yards of Icarbonic aoid, leading to a
great expenditure of heat; and that
from every heotare of forest land
sufficient heat is abstracted to melt
316 cubic yards of ice. Ligneous
plants also withdraw from the ground
and discharge as vapor more than
10000 gallons of water per acre per
day, which causes sensible reduc-
tion of temperature. When clouds
pass over forest they encounter a
cool, damp atmosphere, the point of
saturation comes closer, and rain is
caused. This condition of forest
land has been remarked on by aero
nauts, who find that balloon is in
variably affected, and drops when
passing over forests. .
The advantages claimed for forests
with regard to water supply are that
the trees act as regulators of the rain
fall; that the average quantity of
rain fallingl on land covered with
forests is greater than in the open
ground to the extent of about one
sixth /; that it holds up the water for
time and discharges it later on
when water is most required in river
basins, the rain being held back by
the leaves of the trees and coming to
the ground more gradually; the rain
that falls on the surface is also taken
up by the layer Of dead leaves on
the ground, which permits of a
gradual percolation to the subsoil.
Observations show that in summer
the ground of the forest is damper
than that of the adjacent cleared
land, and snow remains for a much
longer period in forest land before
melting than in cleared land.
AS the result of many years. OBJ
servations, it has been found that
the maximum level of underground
water is reached in May, that the
water accumulates in the ground from
August to January, and that the
rivers are supplied by this reserve,
and were it not for this accumulation
many brooks and river feeders would
cease to flow in summer.
Several very striking examples are