94 J^IASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The ancient river Scamander whicli was navigable at the 

 commencement of the Christian era, has completely disap- 

 peared with the cedars of Mount Ida, where it took its rise. 

 Not only in the Old World are these destructive results felt, 

 but they are beginning to be seen in America. Prescott in 

 his " Conquest of Mexico " says : "In the time of the Aztecs, 

 the table-land was thickly covered with larch, oak, cypress, 

 and other forest trees, the extraordinary dimensions of some 

 of which, remaining to the present day, show that the curse 

 of barrenness in later times is chargeable more on man than 

 on nature." The Ohio River is dwindling in size because the 

 forests of Ohio and Pennsylvania are disappearing. Our 

 Atlantic States are also beginning to feel the effects of the too 

 rapid destruction of their woodlands, and it is a common 

 observation that our summers are become drier and our 

 streams smaller. There are many streams that a century ago 

 were capable of turning mills that can do so no longer. But 

 if our country is exempt from the terrible calamities which 

 inundations and droughts have brought upon some of the 

 fairest portions of the Old World, we may ascribe it to the 

 fact that we have not as yet bared the sources of all the 

 streams, nor stripped the mountains entirely of their natural 



covering. 



European countries felt the necessity of forest-planting 

 many years ago, and the laws of almost every State of Europe 

 more or less adequately secure the permanence of the forest. 

 England and Scotland can boast their thousands of acres of 

 majestic pines, larches and oaks, while the artificial forests of 

 France, Austria and Russia rank among the most valuable 

 government property of those countries. Germany has im- 

 ported thousands of dollars' worth of seeds of the valuable 

 redwood from California, and the young forests growing from 

 them are the pride of that nation. She has also established 

 special departments for forest-culture, with the schools neces- 

 sary to educate the officers in tkeir duties of cultivating and 

 protecting trees. Spain is said to be the only European land 

 that makes no provisions foi; its forests. The Spaniard's 

 "hatred of a tree" is proverbial, and they have reduced their 

 once fertile and beautiful country to one renowned for its 

 extreme aridity and desolate appearance. Eminent writers 



