Year: 1879

Of desolation which is recorded far | back of the days of Roman or even of | Grecian glory, we re that '' man was

 famous according as he had lifted up

 axes upon the thick trees" In the days when American forests were considered practically limitless, our fathers were

 far too famous for lifting up axes upon

 the thick trees, and the resultant destruc- tlon IS even now upon us, like the Pal lstlnes upon Samson. This destruction

 comes upon us in many forms, most of

 which are, in fact, rapidly and terribly

 cumulative. Here is beautiful stream of water. for example, which was a

 great element of wealth to the region | through which it flowed. It might not

 only have continued to be so, but to have gained in usefulness instead of being

 dead or surely and swiftly passing away. The numberless little hollows on the hills where were the springs which grew into rivulets to feed it have been stripped of the moisture-economizin | verdUre with which the Creator clothed

 them, and so the springs are dry, and the rills no longer murmur their once glad songs of labor as they hastened down the valleys to turn the mill-wheels of

 mechanical industry. In this one matter

 of destruction of hydraulic power with which we have been already smitten, hundreds of millions of dollars of annual damage has been and is the actual re- suit. That this drying up of the streams is attributable not only chiefly to defor esting, but almost solely to it, common sense-which is. in fact, the very essence

 of both fact and philosophy-must make the springs. To feed them economically,

 it should be gentle and frequent, not violent and at long intervals. Intelli- | gent forest engineering would require

 that such portion of hills be clothed

 with a mantle of green trees as by its cooling influence it would more ire quently so contract the aerial sponge as

 to give us us showers at short in

 tervals; This is the case in forest

 c.othed, beautiful Britain. The re-

 verse is true in tree-tipped Spain.

 whose people have become as pro-

 verbal for their hatred of trees as their

 country has for sterility of soil and sleep | ing streams. There, and on eastward i all through the Orient, relentlessly 1 brilliant sky and an appallins absence of

 verdure will teach one as nothing else

 cal. how beautiful are clouds that weep,

 and, in its proper time. how delicious a ! drizzling rainy day. The deforested | Eastern lands are as famous for seasons

 of binding storms, and valleys torn by ! terrible torrents. as they are for the re- i verse. They will soon find their counter part in all these characteristics in America, unless we rouse ourselves with i a will to understand and to master these i evils. Forests promote streams avail

 able for our precious manufacturing i'm 1 terests, also, by furnishing vast and al-

 most innumerable beds of fallen leaves and of moss, which act on the earth 1 like huge overlying sponge, to check

 the sudden rush of the rainfall into the

 valleys and down into the streams. l Very rapidl in recent years are mourn full instances multiplying in which these

 manufacturing streams are transformed l by freshets from spirits of blessings-to l give homes and food and clothing % ! thousands who live in the hamlets, by | turning the machinery which helps | them by their labor to help themselves

 to demons of destruction. Forests also 1 promote such steadiness of flow of the l streams as to make them sources of

 national wealth in giving employment ! to skilled labor, by preventing the rapid

 evaporation of moisture. Probably

 more than half the water that falls on

 a deforested region in a dry season is ! whisked off by evaporation just at the | time when it is most needed to strengthen

 the depleted mill-streams. The steam

 engine to be of any practical use as

 motive power. must have its action con | trolled by the conservative influence of

 

 would whirl at one time with fury

 which would result only in destruction, | and then they would move too slowly to | be of service. Thus the forest, by in

 creasing the frequency of gentle rains. and so decreasing the volume and the 1 length of intervals between showers, also | by regulating their too sudden plunge | into the streams, is the great regulator provided by nature for their control in 1 the service of man. All over the manu- 1 featuring portions of our country we

 may find instances where large amounts

 of capital have been invested to develop

 and make available our once magnificent

 and almost numberless hydraulic i powers. Trusting to what seemed 6

 certainty of employment for themselves and their families, thousands of skilled laborers have in many eases confidingly

 made their homes at a point where the

 stream seemed abundantly powerful and permanent. Then, as the summers came and went, the river seemed to 1 sicken, and grow more and more feeble, till there would be week or two each year in which the spindles and the looms

 would be silent. As time went on these periods of idleness have heightened into

 months. in which the labor struggle for

 bread and clothing, for means to pay for the humble little home, or debts incurred in sickness. was compelled to be sus- pended. The cause of all this was that the sources of the rivers life had been

 destroyed or injured by the ignorance.

 cupidity, or recklessness of men who

 lifted up the axe on the thick trees" far up the mountains. where the mill streams had their birth--G. v. .FofoeH. tn Harper's 1fagazins.