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to St. Paul. Now the navigation with boats of half that draught is uncertain enough. 

 Nearly all the tributaries of the Upper Mississippi have also lost one-half, or even more, of 

 their former supply of water. Inundations in the spring are now frequent, while now in 

 the summer time the depth of many of these rivers average hardly more inches than it 

 could be measured by feet thirty years ago. Water powers, which were formerly deemed 

 to be inexhaustible, have entirely been abandoned, or their failing motive power has been 

 replaced by steam. In the remembrance of the older settlers the climate of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota was remarkably steady, the winters were long and cold, the supply of snow 

 ample and regular, and late frosts in the spring were unusual. Now the inhabitants com- 

 plain of abrupt changes of the temperature in all seasons of the year, and of the irregu- 

 larity of the snow-fall. The Legislature of Wisconsin has already paid attention to these 

 alarming facts, and has taken the preservation of existing forests, and the establishment 

 of artificial ones, in earnest consideration. By a resolution recently passed, it asks of the 

 National Government the transfer for that purpose, of all unsold public lands to the state, 

 which are now despoiled of their timber by thievish lumbermen." 



Arizona. 



"In the Territory of Arizona an immense number of deserted Indian dwellings carved 

 out of the rocks were recently discovered. The former inhabitants of the same must 

 necessarily have been a sedative people, devoted to [agriculture, but the whole district is 

 now desert like, there being no supply of water, and hills as well as plateaus and valleys 

 being dry, stony and nearly destitute of vegetation. This can not have been the condition 

 of that district when it was densely populated by hundreds and thousands of Indians. 

 Now the only plausible solution of the ethnographical enigma which is here propounded to 

 us, is the following : The hills and slopes there were once stocked with lumber, which was 

 wasted by the inhabitants, whereafter the same deterioration of the country gradually 

 took place which we notice in Palestine, Greece, and Sicily, and finally the people had to 

 emigrate to avoid starvation. 



"But enough of the warning examples of history. 



" It is not too late for repairing all the damage that has been done in America by the 

 devastation of our natural forests. A regulation of the use of the timber may be efiected 

 without any injury to the legitimate lumber trade, and the replanting as well as the 

 establishment of artificial forests, may undoubtedly be made profitable for private as well 

 as for public enterprise. If it is remunerative to acclimatize and extensively raise Ameri- 

 can trees in Germany and France, where the soil is much higher in price than here, why 

 should it not be lucrative to cultivate them in those parts of the United States in which 

 the timber is scarce and precious 1 They grow quicker here and to greater perfection than 

 anywhere else. Nature has lavishly provided this country with an uncommonly large 

 number of the most valuable species of trees. There are not more than thirty-five species 

 and distinct varieties of native trees in France which attain a height of over thirty feet, 

 not more than sixty-five in Germany, but over one hundred and fifty in the upper part 

 of the Mississippi Valley alone. All Europe possesses not a single native walnut tree. 

 (The so-called English walnut is of Asiatic origin.) We have nine varieties of hickory 

 and two of walnut proper. You may search all the world over in vain to find a sort of 

 timber which, in general usefulness, could rival with our hickory tree. Our walnut and 

 oak varieties alone outnumber all the varieties of trees native to France and Spain. 



" A benign nature has lavishly provided for this country ; but does that give us a 

 right to waste these blessings, destined for the human race of all future ages, within the 

 short life of a few generations, like spendthrifts 1 Shall we adopt the most detestable 

 motto of a modern Sardanapalus, ' Apres nous le deluge f ' — anticipate everything and 

 leave nothing for those who will come after us 1 Will America's pride bear the humiliat- 

 ing prospect that the immense work of culture, which so far has been achieved in this 

 country by the most intelligent, independent, progressive and energetic of all Nations, 

 shall soon be frustrated by the unavoidable consequences of our greedy mismanagement 

 of the natural resources of our country 1 Shall the future of this great Eepublic be made 

 uncertain by a gradual deterioration of soil and climate, or shall it forever remain the 

 happy and comfortable home of the free 1 Is not the care for future generations one of 



