The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-12-09

l was made. however, to preserve the un-
 checked cutting of the trees, or to se- l cure reforestation. Doubtless for many
 centuries the tree-eutting by the in habitants of the mountains worked but
 slowly In bringing about the changes that have now come to pass; doubtless | for generations the inroads were 1 scarcely noticeable. But ther& came a
 time when the forest had shrunk suf- l ffeiently to make each years cutting a ! serious matter, and from that time on the destruction proceeded with appall- ing rapidlty; for of course each year of
 destruction rendered the forest less able | to reeuperate less able to resist next | years inroad Mr. Meyer describes the | ceasless progress of the destruction
 even now. when there is so little left | to destroy. Every morning men and | boys go out armed with mattoX or axe,
 scale the steepest mountain sides, and
 cut down and grub out, root and
 branch, the small trees and shrubs still
 to be found The big trees disappeared l centuries ago, so that now one of these 1 is never seen save in the neighborhood
 of temples, where they are artihciaily l protected; anda even here 1t takes all the watch and care of the tree-loving priests to prevent their destruction. | Each family, each community, where
 there Is no common care exercised in
  deforestation, finds it's profit in the 1 immediate use of the fuel which would ! otherwise be used by some other fam 1 fly or some other community. In the | total absence of regulation of the mat | ter in the interest of the, whole peo- | pie, each small group is inevitably
 pushed into a policy of destruction which cannot afford to take though | for the morrow. This is just one of | those matters which it is fatal to leave l to unsupervised Individual control The | forests can only be protected by the | state, by the nation: and the liberty | of action of individuals must be con
 ditioned upon what the state or nation 1 determines to be necessary for the com mon safety.
 The lesson of deforestation in China l is a lesson which mankind should have learned many times already from wnat has occurred in other places. Denuda- tion leaves naked soil. then gullying
 cuts down to the bare rock; and mean
 while the rock-w buries the bot
 tomlands When the soil is gone, men must go; and the process does not take long.
 This ruthless destruction of the forests in northern China has brought about, or
 has aided in bringing about, desolaton,
 just as the destruction of the forests in central Asia aid in bringing ruin to the
 once rich central Asian cities; just as the
 destruction of the forests in northern Africa helped toward the ruin of 8. re-
 zion that was a fertile granary in Roman days Shortsighted man, whether bar barrie, semi-civilized or what he mistaken ly regards as fully civilized. when he
 has destroyed the forests. has rendered
 certain the ultimate destruction of the land itself In northern China the noun
 tains are now such as are shown by the accompanying photographs, absolute ly barren peaks. Not only have the for ests been destroyed, but because of their
 destruction the soil has been washed off the naked rock. The terrible consequence
 is that it is impossible now to undo the damage that has been done. Many cen
 turies would have to pass before soil would again collect or could be made to
 collect, in sufficient quantity once more to support the old-time forest growth. ln
 consequence the Mongol Desert is prac- tically extending eastward over northern China The climate has changed and is still changing It has changed even With in the last half century, as the work or tree destruction has been consummated.
 The great masses of arboreal vegetation
 on the mountains formerly absorbed the
 heat of the sun and sent up currents of
 cool air which brought the moisture
 laden clouds lower and forced them to
 precipitate in rain a part of their bur den of water. Now that there is no veg
 citation, the barren mountains, scorched
 by the sun, send up currents of heated
 air which drive away instead of attract
 ing the rain clouds and cause their
 moisture to be disseminated. In conse-
 quence, instead of the regular and plen-
 tiful rains which existed in these regions
 of China when the forests were still in
 evidence, the unfortunate inhabitants of
 the deforested lands now see their crops
 wither for lack of rainfall, while the sea-
 sons grow more and more irregular; and
 as the air becomes dryer certain crops
 refuse longer to grow at all. That every
 thing dries out faster than formerly is
 shown by the fact that the level of the
 wells all over the land has sunk per
 ceptbly, many of them having become
 totally dry In addition to the result
 ing agricultural distress, the watercourses
 have changed. Formerly they were mar row and deep, with an abundance of clear
 water the year around; for the roots and
 humus of the forests caught the rain
 water and let it escape by slow, reg
 ular seepage. They have now become
 broad, shallow stream beds, in which
 muddy water triclSles in slender currents
 during the dry seasons. while when 1t
 rains there are freshets, and roaring muddy torrents come tearing down, bringing disaster and destruction every where, Moreover, these floods and fresh
 cts, which diversity the general dryness, wash away from the mountain sides and either wash away or cover in the valleys
 the rich fertile soil which 1t took tens of thousands of years for nature to form; and it Is lost forever, and until the forests grow again it cannot be re- placed The sand and stones from the mountain sides are washed loose and come rolling down to cover the arabic lands, and in consequence throughout this part of China, many formerly rich districts are now sandy wastes, useless for human cultivation and even for pas ture The cities have been of course se- riously affected, for the streams have gradually ceased to be navgable. There
 Is testimony that even within the mem ory of men now living there has been a serious diminution of the rainfal of northeastern China. The level of the Sum- gari river in northern Manchuria has been sensibly lowered during the last 50 years at least partly as the result of | the indiscriminate cutting of the forests | forming it's watrshed. Almost all the | rivers of northern China have become | uncomfortable, and very dangerous to | the dwellers along their banks, as a direct result of the destruction of the | forests The journey from Pekin to Je- 1 hol shows in melancholy fashion how the soil has been washed away from whole | valleys. so that they have been converted 1 into deserts.
 l Tn northern China this disastrous pro- | cess has gone on so long and has pro- | ceeded so far that no complete remedy could be applied There are certain mountains in China from which the soil l is gone so utterly that only the slow