The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-01-24
IMPROVISATION OR RUIN

For years growing udHSSi mas
been entrenched in our state-a dan
ger that comparatively few recognize
or even think of, but it has so increas-
ed that unless checked and measures
taken to counteract it, Florida IN fif-
teen or twenty years more will be a
treeless desert
When we say treeless, we refer to
the forests; not TO the o.t. --s.n groves
and orchards and the ornamental
growth that *inadequately make a
shadow of an attempt to replace the
giants of nature, and which them
selves must perish unless their fallen
guardians are replaced.
Fifty years ago, Florida was 80 per
cent forest. Extremes of heat or cold
and drouths were unknown. Of course
this condition of affairs could not be
expected to continue. Agriculture
and stock raising would not have re-
duced the forests with undue rapid
ity, and agriculture would have part
Iy replaced old trees with new. But
the timber and turpentine industries
naturally began the work that seemed
lying right in their hands and in less
than half a century have destroyed
more than half our forests, with a
prospect that, on account of that con-
slant clearing of land for farms, cut
ting down trees for lumber or box
ing them for turpentine, the remain
der will be destroyed in far less time.
A treeless country is always a
desert country, the reason being that
trees attract rain in moderate guam
titles, and temper the climate. In
deserts there are drouths broken at
long intervals by heavy storms, but
moderate rains are unknown. Trees
also temper the climate. Where there
are great forests the weather is not
SO hot or so cold as in treeless lands
in the same latitude. Our "Great
American Desert was once treeless
waste, where the grass, green and
sustaining a short portion of the
year, was dry as finder the remainder
of the twelve months. When Lewis
and Clark led their little band across
the country between the Mississippi
and the Pacific, there were not fifty
thousand people living in the vast
stretch of country from Dakota to
Texas. These lived on game and only
| by shifting from one place to another
making long journeys from one wa.
| tcrhole to the next; and often fighting
bloody battles for the possession of d
little spring that would not be noticed
in the east. When the pioneers came
they planted trees and now the prai-
ries are dotted everywhere with groves
and orchards, the roads are shaded
and the entire condition of the coun-
TRY is changed, so that in many places
million live in comfort where once
la thousand could find bare sustenance
The vast Sahara was once a fertile
country with many cities-the people
wasted their timber and their lane
became a desert, rolling its waves OF
sand down to the coast to meet the
waves of the sea. Now the people
guided by the French, are planting
trees and digging wells and slowly
retaining the country from desola
ton. The nations of Europe were go
limo the same wav hut thew found out
what harm they were doing them
selves and most of them checked the
destruction in time. The American
government, realizing the danger, i!
tying to check it with forest re
lserves, and some of our states art
working on the same line, but here il
Florida and several other states wher,
the longleaf pine abounded the care
llessness and greed of the individual
overrides the common good, our tree'
fall by hundreds of acres a day, ant
if we don't stop it the sun ere man!
years will shine on a stretch of SANE
and scrub.
This matter is one on which GU,
: Ipresent representatives in the legisla
ture desire to consult their constitu
ents. Mr.. Hunter desires to introduce
a bill by which reforestation cal
commence at once and be sustained
Until the sttae is relieved from it!
rapidly increasing peril.