The Mena weekly star., 1921-04-28
China's Famine The Result
 Of Deforestation

He TuJueSS ueSbTuCIlOn or lne1T forests by the Chinese is, according to foresters of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture, one of the req sons why famine and plague today hold them in their sinister grasp. De- mutation, wherever practiced, leaves naked soil; floods and erosion follow, and when the soil is gone, men must also go-and the process does not take long. Forests, it is pointed out, not only play an important part in the dis tribution of mankind over the earth's surface, but also deeply affect his
 piritual and economic life. A country that recklessly wastes it's natural re- sources faces ultimate poverty and de- cadence. History is full of such ex- amples.
 Tn the provinces of Honan, Shensi and Chihli, China, over an area some 100000 square miles in extent, several million people are starving. The inn mediate causes of the famine were dis astrous floods followed by long per iods of drought, which resulted in the failure of three successive crops.
 Reforestation Not Practiced in China.
 The Great Plains of Eastern China, occupied by the first Chinese of whom history tells, were centuries ago trans formed from forest into agricultural land. The mountain plateau of cen tral China have also, within a few hundred years, been utterly devastated of tree growth, and no attempt made at either natural of artificial refores- tation. As a result the water rushes off the naked slopes in veritable floods, gullying away the mountain sides, causing rivers to run muddy with yellow soil, and carrying enor- nous masses of fertile earth to the
 ca. Beware of the mountain water" :" read signs in many canyons of China, posted as warning to travellers against the sudden rise of torrents during storms.
 This lack of forest cover has made possible many of the factors that have brought disaster to millions of people of China this year The tree-covered mountains formerly absorbed a con siderable portion of the annual rain fall and let it escape by slow, regular seepage during the dry season. Now that there are no trees, shrubs, or E the streams that formerly were mar row and deep, and supplied an abund- ance of clear water the year round, have become broad and shallow, with slender currents of muddy water, which, when if rains, swell to roaring torrents that bring disaster and de- struction everywhere.
 Water courses have also changed; ,.sxt I.LI l.. AI water level of the country lowered perceptibly. In consequence, the un- fortunate people see their crops wither and die for lack of water when it is most needed In many parts of China, it is said, these factors combined with. uncertain moisture conditions make seven years out of every ten more or less famine yeas.
 Floods and Famine are Common.
 The Hwang Ho or Yellow river, which drains large part of the fam inc district, once, records show. flowed thru a rich fertile valley, it's tributary hills well wooded. Today it is a broad moving quicksand with a small amount of water most of the year, but when tho floods come the whole face of the landscape may be changed. In 1886 this river, which is known as "China's Sorrow" flooded some 10000 square miles of the most densely populated lands, wiped out one thousand of villages and towns. and drowned 100000 people.
 Some idea of the rapidity of the run-off in the mountains may also be obtained from the records of the Yanste river, which has been known to rise 58 feet above mean water level in one week, and then fall 68 feet in less than three weeks.
 Human folly and short sightedness have thus made a country, fertile enough to support over 50000 000 people, into place where man will ever be haunted by fear of starvation and destruction. The lesson of defores- tation Tn China is one which mankind should have learned many times from what has occurred in other places. Tn fact, it may, in lesser degree, even be brought home to the people of America in future years unless thru wise forethought, care is exercised in the preservation of our forests from destruction by fire and wasteful lum- berinp