POPULAR OPINION IN REGARD TO DESICCATION. 163 



fiotn newspapers. In publications of this class hardly a day passes that some 

 paragraph may not be noticed, either original or going the rounds, as 

 ordinary newspaper extracts do, — especially in the case of such as contain 

 incorrect statements of fact, or errors of some other kind, — without contra- 

 diction, ascribing alterations of climate in various regions to removal of the 

 forests. These alterations are usually indicated as being wide-spread, and of 

 a most disastrous nature. One or two quotations of this kind will answer 

 the purpose of making known the character of the popular impression on the 

 point in question, as evidenced by the gist of innumerable newspaper para- 

 graphs. The first is from a leading article in what is usually considered a 

 highly respectable organ of public opinion, published in a city professing to 

 be one of culture. " The Arboretum [near Boston] was founded as a scien- 

 tific establishment in the belief that the information it could gather and 

 disseminate would add something at least to the world's knowledo;e of the 

 relation of the forest to man in its climatic, ph^'sical and economic aspects, 

 and of the methods which, sooner or later, must be adopted to protect our 

 forest growth, unless the United States is to be allowed to sink to the com- 

 mercial and social level of tlie deforested countries of the Mediterranean 

 basin." * 



The New York " Nation " thus speaks, in its usual peremptory tone, on 

 the subject of "our 'protected' forests" : f "Scientific men agree ivith great 

 unanimity that the preservation of extensive forests is A'ital to the prosperity 



of a large part of the country Moreover the prosperity of the West 



is an agricultural prosperity directly connected with its forest growth, for 

 one of the few means of moderating these violent excesses [of climate — 

 phenomena of excessive winds, rain-fall, and drought having been described in 

 graphic language in tlie omitted sentences] and keeping up the even distri- 

 bution of the necessary moisture is by forests In California the de- 

 struction of the trees has been so reckless that over e:reat tracts of land the 

 soil, stripped of its natural protection, is burned by the sun and powdered 

 by the wind into a hopeless desert." % 



From the above it will be seen that the prime cause of the desiccation and 

 the ensuing ruin of various regions is usually considered to be simply the 

 removal of the forests. There are writers, however, who take a someAvhat 



• The Boston Daily Advertiser, number for Kov. 29, 1881. 



t In the numher for Jan. 5, 1882. The italics are of the present writer's adding. 



X The statement in the last sentence quoted is not true, as a matter of fact, and reference will be again made 

 to it farther on. 



