Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-13
Waste of Vegetable Life
Held as Drought Cause
no the editor on The Sac:

10 the EdltOr OL AhC 0boA'
Drought! Is it not one Of the most
distressiul of all calamities? And what
is its cause? Some prophet AYERS 1t to
he astronomical. while the Weather Bu-
reau characterizes it as self-creating or
cumulative.
1 say it is due to the universal de-
struction of forests and wooded areas
throughout this country. The bane1ul
and criminal process has been going on
unhampered for decades, and Dame
Nature, after suffering such constant
violation, is hitting back, and httlng
hard
Oh, think how terrible it would be
were the drought to continue linden
nitely, or until all vegetation, 1ncludlng
what trees we have left, were perma-
nently withered and killed! Think OF
fair Columbia being converted lnCo
Sahara through the thoughtless, sinful
devastation wrought by man for the
sole purpose Of converting all creation
into goldl
Not only have forests been annihilated
for lumber and pulp but there has In
recent years been an ever-increasing
tendency may say mania-to cut
down all vegetable growth, arboreal or
herbaceouS, along highways and nelo
edges, Clean up, clean up!" being
the ubiquitous slogan, denoting nerV-
Gus, impatient yearning to shave every
thing off as smooth as men shave their
faces every morning. How many, many
country lanes here in Maryland,
through which I delighted to saunter,
because they were lined on either side
with a generous covering of fragrant
sassafras and festooned grapevine.
Towering dogwood and Virginia creeper
and the whole array Of natures incom-
parable ornamentation, have been ruth
1t A4NA lAa~ -@f~ Id al
ness being turned into merciless tor
ridity!
With logged determination has every
device or measure been utilized to dry
up the country from end to end, thereby
converting the surface of the ground
into burning-hot stove top, radiating
dry heat instead of cool moisture, as
intended. Thousands of picturesque
marshes and romantic swampS are
drained and gone; brooks, runs and
rivulets have been Strengthened and de-
nuded of their verdant fringe, so that
they now carry rainwater back to the
river and sea with a rush instead OF
letting 1t seep into the soil and remain
while to beget further rain by its
gradual evaporation; underbrush from
woods has been cleaned out, thus dry
Ing the ground even where the trees
are left standing; along roadsides, espe-
cially automobile pixies, f1endish per-
sistence Is shown in suppressing every
smitch of vegetation as soon as 1t G.I-
pears, roadmen being employed to pa
troll The highways for this sinister pur--
pose, not even q timid wildfiower being
allowed to show its face! Farmers are
prone to root up wild growth along the
edges of their field where but shortly
ago they left 1t standing, If for no other
reason than as shelter for their feath-
cred friends, the birds. But now 1t Is
everywhere-burn up, grub up. slash,
hack, destroy the last veStige Of nature
and plant something that will bring
dollars, dollars, dollars! I ask, III
dollars, piled skyhigh, elicit q drop Of
rain from the outraged heavens? And
without rain can dollars produce one
calorie of food for the nourishment Of
your fiber? What good will gold do
when there is no food left for 1t to buy?
My humble suggestion would be that,
pending the time when a duly conSti-
tuted commission of Government scien-
lists shall have devised means of artifi-
cially inducing rain or making the limit
less water supply of the ocean available
for our fields, nationwide campaign
be inaugurated with view to permit
ting Nature to come back into her own
throughout the length and breadth Of
the land, lest we be brought low in our
purse pride by the awful specter OF
death in the form Of drought, followed
by famine! WILFRED STEVENS.