THE LESSON OF THE FOREST FIRES. 589 



pied by the tiller of the soil, left behind him no disastrous traces 

 of' his presence, or, if a conflagration sometimes followed his 

 camp fires, it occurred but seldom, and was never intentional. 

 Both the aboriginal wood- dweller and his venatic successors 

 looked upon the forest as the gift of the Great Spirit, to be 

 reverenced by man as a sign of the bounty of a beneficent Cre- 

 ator, and not to be wantonly desecrated. 



The practice of burning the old and dry grass in unoccupied 

 lands, in order that a younger and mpre tender growth may 

 give pasture to cattle, is still common in some of our States, and 

 its results, though of benefit to a few, are disastrous to the gen- 

 eral welfare. In Florida the cattle men have long been omnipo- 

 tent. They have sway in the Legislature, which enacts laws to 

 suit their wishes, even to the extent of prohibiting towns and vil- 

 lages from passing ordinances to prohibit the running at large 

 of cattle. A considerable portion of the State is thus annually 

 burned over. Nor is it the grass alone that burns, but fire com- 

 municates to the pine trees, thousands of which yearly succumb. 

 Meantime fences must be maintained to keep out cattle common- 

 ers, only to be often burned in their turn. Worse than all, the 

 humus in the sandy soil is burned out, and the future wealth and 

 resources of the State are destroyed, to privilege a few, whose 

 entire interests are not a thousandth part in value of the ruin 

 they accomplish. At this day and everywhere may be encoun- 

 tered tracts of utterly barren and worthless land, in the midst of 

 comparatively fertile, whose fertility has been thus destroyed. 

 In northern California similar aggressions are committed by 

 the sheep-herders, and the Government reserves have to be pro- 

 tected by the army, acting as patrols. 



There is another aspect more important even than the value 

 of the pecuniary loss to the country from the extraordinary and 

 rapid consumption of its forests, and which still more strongly 

 concerns the future of the nation. I refer to the effects of defor- 

 estation upon the climate and soils. 



Although there is not entire agreement among scientists as to 

 the effect of the removal of forests upon the climate, and especially 

 the rainfall, the following propositions seem to be well established : 



1. That the temperature is hotter in summer and colder in 

 winter than when the country was covered with forests. This is 

 a natural result of exposure of the soil to more active radiation 

 and consequent frost. 



2. The winds have a more uninterrupted sweep, and so the 

 country is both dried up and refrigerated. 



3. The rainfall is either less in amount, or its advantages are 

 to a great degree lost. Forests retain the moisture that falls and 

 do not allow it to go to waste. 



