336 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



before reaching apparently sound uninjured forest. Such has been the 

 widespread damage by one industrial plant in the ten years of its 

 existence. The national forests at the headwaters of the Missouri and 

 the Columbia are dying, and the Attorney General, in compelling their 

 protection by reform in the extraction of copper, has done his duty well. 



Another case in point is afforded by a recent decision in southern 

 California. In the heart of the orange-producing region of the San 

 Bernardino valley, the manufacture of cement, begun on a small scale, 

 has developed to considerable proportions. Going eastward on the 

 Southern Pacific Bailroad from Los Angeles, one passes through almost 

 continuous groves of orange trees, their dark green leaves glistening in 

 the brilliant sunshine which has given that land its name. Suddenly 

 one notices that the foliage is no longer green, but gray, not glossy but 

 dull, and that on the opposite side of the train is a cement works con- 

 stantly wasting part of its laboriously manufactured product. This dust 

 settles on leaves and soil, enters houses, and becomes a nuisance every- 

 where. It sets wherever there is moisture, in dew or fog or rain, and does 

 not wash off like ordinary dust. By reason of this opaque coating over 

 the leaves, the manufacture of food in these green organs is interfered 

 with, and the insufficiently nourished trees yield a correspondingly 

 diminished crop. So serious has this injury to the orange industry 

 become, that the court has decided that the manufacture of cement in 

 one plant must be stopped entirely, and in another may be carried on 

 only on a small scale, until such changes have been made that manufac- 

 ture can be resumed without disadvantage to the orange-growers. That 

 such changes will be made in this plant I have no doubt. 



Such cases as this, revealing the conflict of civilization and vegeta- 

 tion, decided with wisdom as well as justice, leading to improved 

 methods of manufacture, go far toward establishing that new balance 

 which must be attained in America, as it was reached long ago in more 

 populous Europe, that balance between civilization and vegetation 

 which will ensure the stability and the prosperity of both. 



