Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1926-03-04
Burning Off Woods"
And Tree Destruction
WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
COSTS GEORGIA MILLIONS IN
LUMBER, RUINED SOIL AND
DROUGHTS.

(Reprinted from Robinson's Com
mercial Geography by the Week..
To the early settlers in America,
| the forest seemed merely hiding
place for wild beasts and hostile In
| dams. To fell the forests and let in
the light therefore came to be re-
garded as conquest achieved over a
common enemy of man and of civili-
cation. Something of this feeling
still persists on the frontier and the
pioneer in forested regions still
swings his AK with vindictive force,
though the forest, so far from being
the enemy, has long since been recog-
nized as one of the best friends of
man.
Nevertheless, so RAPED and so thor
ough has been the work of destruc-
ton that the day is now at hand in
the country when the last of the NIGH
ty forests prepared by Nature
through a Thousand years will have
disappeared.
Forests not only enrich the soil
through decaying vegetation, but they
also protect it from rapid erosion.
What is perhaps still more important,
above and below ground, serves as a
sponge to absorb and hold the ram
and melting snow. The water conse-
quetnly sinks into the earth and is
sues gradually in springs, in place Of
rushing at once into the rivers.
In this way, forests equalize the
flow of rivers, moderating both floods
and droughts and conserving the riv-
ers for purposes of irrigation, water
power, and navigation during all sea-
sons of the year.
How important these services are
| may be judged from the RESULTS of
deforestation, especially in tn billy
parts of the South, where the ground
/ is not protected from the heavy rains
of winter Thousands upon thou
sands of acres are already stripped OF
soil by the rains and turned into bad
lands" as useless to man for all time
to come as though sunk beneath the
sea. Moreover, the valleys, wherever
the forests have been cut awey, are
increasingly rava&ed by floods; lille
water powers, estimated at over a
million horsepower and worth $50
600. 900 q year, are endangered. In
order to check such destruction, Con-
gress has finally provided for the
purchase and permanent reforesta-
ton of the most rugged districts both
in the southern Appalachians and IN
New England.
Again, a forested land is cooler in
summer and warmer in winter than a
treeless surface. AS a result of this
| fact great forests, sheltering the soil
from the burning heat of summer and
| the biting winds of winter, have
/ something of the same effect as the
ocean in moderating extremes Of ell
mate. Moreover, a forested surface,
cooled by constant evaporation, Is a
| better condenser of moisture, and
| therefore less liable to prolonged
| drought, than surface OF bare
rocks or of sun-baked soil.
Finally, forests are as necessary to
civilization as gain fields; and, Ton
sidering the quality of land suitable
for forests, they can be made as prof
table. Cheap lumber has been pO-
tent factor in the rapid development
of the United States, especially the
western prairies; and timber fam
inc, such as now impends, must needs
! lay crushing tax on American III
dustry and commerce.
1t is. therefore, imperative that a
scientific system of forestry be fol
lowed in numbering, whereby the
young trees may be saved to perpet-
uate the forest, wherever the soil is
too stony or sandy or the slope is too
steep for farming. In fact, millions
of acres of the uplands in the United
States, now denuded of timber, would
best serve the uses of man if perma-
nently reforested. Already the pro-
portion of forested area in the United
! States has fallen almost as low as IN
| Germany.