ARBORICULTURE 



8: 



RESULT OF THE CLIMATIC CHANGE. 



These historic mentions of famines en- 

 able us to see the result in the now 

 raidly changing climate of the country 

 about Palestine, portions of which, how- 

 ever, still remained fruitful during the 

 first century of the Christian Era. Flav- 

 ins JoseiVnus, A. D. 75, says of Galilee, 

 "For the Galileans are inured to war 

 from their infancy, and have always been 

 very numerous, for their soil is univer- 

 sally rich and fruitful, and full of the 

 plantations of trees of all sorts, inasmuch 

 that it invites the most slothful to take 

 pains in its cultivation by its fruitful- 

 ness ; accordingly, it is all cultivated by 

 its inhabitants and no part of it lies idle. 

 Moreover, the cities lie here very thick, 

 and the very many villages there and 

 here are everywhere so full of people, by 

 the richness of t/icir soil, that the very 

 least of them contain about fifteen thou- 

 sand inhabitants/' 



"But for Perea, the greater part of it 

 is desert and rough ; yet hath it a moist 

 soil and produces all kinds O'f fruits, and 

 its plains are planted with trees of all 

 sorts, while yet the olive tree, the vine 

 and the palm tree are chiefly cultivated 

 there. It is also sufficiently watered with 

 torrents which issue out of the moun- 

 tains, and with springs that never fail 

 to run, even when the torrents fail them, 

 as they do in dog days." 



"Now as to Samaria, it is entirelv of 

 the same nature with Judea; for both 

 countries are made up of hills and val- 

 leys, and are moist enough for agricul- 

 ture, and are very fruitful. They have 

 abundance of trees, and are full of 

 autumnal fruit, both that which grows 

 wild, and that which is the effect of cul- 

 tivation. They are not naturally watered 

 by many rivers ; but derive their chief 

 moisture from rain, of zvhich they have 

 no zvant. By reason of the excellent 

 grass they have, their cattle yield more 

 milk than do those in other places ; and 

 what is the greatest sign of excellency 

 and of abundance, they each of them are 

 very full of people." 



Having this description by contem- 

 porary writers during the first century, 

 let us contrast writers of the present day 

 as to what Palestine now is. 



Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage says from his 

 visit in i.SSq: "While Palestine of to- 

 day is generally uninviting as a land 

 sown with dragons' teeth, choking out 

 like tares, the fruitfulness of the soil, 

 until it presents the hard appearance of 

 a country mildewed, decayed, desolated, 

 yet many evidences remain to attest its 

 former magnificence, if not fertility. 

 Out on the barren hills where rocks pile 

 up in confusion, covered with wild vines, 

 a haunt for the scorpion, lizard and fox, 

 there will be found ruins of stately edi- 

 fices, monuments graved with the records 

 of mighty events, columns of marble that 

 once gleamed in the corridors of splendid 

 temples, images and statues which cen- 

 turies ago stood in grand halls, great 

 courts and sparkling throne rooms." 



Dean Stanley says : "For miles and 

 miles there is no appearance of present 

 life or habitation, except the occasional 

 goat-herd on the hillside, or gathering of 

 women at the wells. Yet there is hardly 

 a hilltop of the many within sight, which 

 is not covered with the vestiges of some 

 fortress or city of former ages." 



The brooks of Palestine are but wadys 

 where once flowed a considerable stream. 



The United States has numerous in- 

 stances where we are approaching the 

 same condition of barrenness that is 

 found in Palestine. 



The hills along the Ohio valley, within 

 the memory of thousands of citizens 

 were heavily timbered, affording pro- 

 tection and fertility to numerous lower 

 fields. They were rich with the mold 

 of a thousand years' accumulation, and 

 for a time were extremely fertile ; wheat, 

 corn, potatoes, timothy hay and other 

 farm crops were gro-wn upon their rich, 

 fresh soils for many years. How are 

 they now? Rocks of loose limestone 

 thickly cover many of the hillside fields, 

 while others embedded in the hard, stiff 

 clay torment the husbandmen who must 

 plow their surface. Clay forms the land 

 from which all vegetable mold has been 

 eroded by torrents of rain. Strict econ- 

 omy and constant labor are required to 

 eke out a living from these once famous, 

 fertile, wooded hills. 



There are similar instances in Califor- 

 nia where the greed of man, and a want 



