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the culture of the vine was carried to greater perfection in southern 
Germany and wine could more easily be carried into northern Ger- 
many, the cultivation of the vine must have been given up in regions 
where favorable years were only the exception. When the first decade 
of the nineteenth century proved very unfavorable to vine cultivation, 
a number of vineyards were suppressed even in the best situations, 
such as Rhenish Hesse and Rheingau, which were afterwards re- 
stored with the return of better times, namely, after 1834 and 1835. 
With the present facilities for communication and the competition in 
the wine business resulting therefrom vine culture is no longer 
profitable in many places where thirty years ago it was so; In many 
places even grain cultivation is declining, because the grain can be 
procured from a distance cheaper than the cost of cultivation, as is 
especially the case in Alpine countries. No one would conclude that 
this is owing to the deterioration of the climate, and with equal right 
one can not attribute the decline of vine culture in high latitudes, 
where it is now no longer profitable, to change of climate. 
Herodotus describes the fertility of Assyria, notwithstanding that 
it seldom rains there. No one, he says, could bring himself to believe 
in its productiveness who was not convinced of it by seeing for him- 
self. At present the fruitfulness of that region is very limited. 
But Herodotus also describes the excellent irrigation of that country 
in his time, and Alexander the Great is said to have found on the 
Scythian frontier an inscription dedicated to Semiramis (2000 B. C.) : 
“ T forced the streams to flow where I willed, and I willed only what 
was useful; I made the dry earth fruitful by watering it with my 
streams.” At the present day the countries in question produce only 
very meager crops, with the exception of the regions on the Tigris. 
near Bagdad; in Mesopotamia, near Urfa; in northern Syria, near 
Aintab, and Messir and other places, where recently irrigation canals 
have again been laid and magnificent cultivation thereby revived. 
No change of climate has taken place; human energy alone has 
altered. Similar changes are seen in Palestine, in Arabia, in Sicily, 
and many other countries. Should the Chinese in many portions 
of their country neglect irrigation, for even short periods they would 
quickly see only deserts where now garden cultivation reigns, while 
the climate would not change in the least. No one acquainted with 
the true cause would attribute to change of climate the increased 
productiveness of Lombardy since the restoration of its excellent 
system of canals and irrigation, or the great decrease of grain culture 
in Switzerland. Without this knowledge only perverted and false 
conclusions would be derived. 
The diminution of forests in the extreme north of Europe, in Ice- 
land, and in the high Alpine regions is more simply to be explained 
by the partial deforestation done by the hand of man, rendering the 
remainder sparser and less capable of resistance to wind and weather 
than by hypothesis of change of climatic conditions. 
At the same time it will not be denied that by irrigation and drain- 
age, by important changes in the system of cultivation, by various 
natural phenomena of nature, etc., many changes of a climatic 
character take place. These changes, however, are only local and 
disappear as soon as the causes which produced them are removed. 
Besides, there is in climatic conditions only a moderate stability, 
