DESTRUCTION OF NORTHERX FORESTS 



60 [ 



tial t<> productiveness and life. 'Jdiis 

 becomes fully plain when we consider 

 the natural laws of the distribution of 

 humidity, which place the coasts under 

 direct control of the sea, while the inte- 

 rior is dependent on local conditions. 

 An illustration may be had in the water 

 discharged by the Mississippi River, 

 which amounts to about one-fifth of tlu' 

 annual rainfall of its basin. It is evi- 

 dent, then, that only one-fifth is re- 

 ceived each }ear from the sea, while 

 the other four-fifths are retained in 

 their cycle of activity as local moisture. 



'Tt is not fanciful," says Shaler, "to 

 say that the greatest misfortune which 

 in a large way man has to meet in his 

 agriculture arises from this peculiar 

 stress wdiich grain crops put on the 

 soil. If these grains grew upon peren- 

 nial plants, in the manner of our large 

 fruits, the problem of man's relation to 

 the soil would be much simpler than it 

 is at present. He might then manage 

 to till the earth without bringing ui^on 

 it the inevitable destruction which he 

 now inflicts. As it is, he should recog- 

 nize that his needs imperil this ancient 

 and precious element of the earth's 

 structure, and he should endeavor in 

 every possible way to minimize the 

 damage which he brings about. * '■' * 

 \Vhere, as is often the case with farms 

 in hilly countries, all the fields are 

 steeply inclined, it is an excellent pre- 

 caution to leave the upper part of the 

 slope with a forest covering. In this con- 

 dition not only is the excessive flow of 

 surface water diminished, but the moist- 

 ure which creeps down the slope from 

 the wooded area tends to keep the lower- 

 lying fields in a better state for tillage, 

 and promotes the decay of the under- 

 lying rocks, and thus adds to the body 

 and richness of the earth." 



Tt is needless to ask whether or not 

 the people of America have conformed 

 their actions to this princii)le so essen- 

 tial to the future welfare of the land. 

 And the result which ignorance or dis- 

 regard has brought about is made 

 known by the same author in his Out- 

 lines of flic Earth's History. "Within 

 the limits of the United States the deg- 

 radation of the soil, owing to the pecu- 



liar conditions of the country, is in 

 many districts going forward with a 

 startling rapidity. Tt has been a habit 

 of our people — a habit favored by the 

 wide extent of fertile and easily 

 ac(|uired frontier ground — recklessly to 

 till their farms until the fields were ex- 

 hausted, and then to abandon them for 

 new ground. \\y shallow plowing on 

 ••■teep hillsides, by the neglect in the 

 beginning of those gulches which form 

 in such places, it is easy in a hill coun- 

 try of the eastern United States to have 

 soil washed away within twenty years 

 after the protecting forests have been 

 destroyed. The writer has estimated 

 that in the states south of the Ohio and 

 James rivers more than 8,000 square 

 miles of originally fertile ground have 

 by neglect been brought into a condi- 

 tion where it will no longer bear crops 

 of any kind, and over 1,500 miles of the 

 area have been so worn down to the 

 subsoil or the bedrock that it may never 

 be jirofitable to win it again to agri- 

 cultural uses." 



If Shaler had written of the northern 

 section of the Central States, he would 

 have found conditions there similar to 

 those mentioned above. 



But of even greater weight at the 

 present time is the devastation resulting 

 from a wasteful and unjustitiable sys- 

 tem of lumbering. The great forests 

 which once clothed the sandy tracts in 

 t!ie northern part of these states have 

 disappeared. And to-day we have but 

 little more than the charred remains 

 of that which the ax has left. 



The history of other countries jxnnts 

 verv clearly to the attendant effects of 

 such a sy.stem of work. "The reckless 

 and wanton destruction of forests has 

 ruined some of the richest countries on 

 earth. Syria and Asia Minor, Palestine 

 and the north of Africa were once far 

 more populous than they are at present. 

 Thev were once lands 'flowing with 

 nn'Ik and honey,' according to the pic- 

 turesque language of the Bible; but are 

 now in manv places reduced to dust 

 and ashes. Why is there this melan- 

 choly change? Why have deserts re- 

 placed cities? Tt is mainly owing to 

 the ruthless destruction of trees, which 



