THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



125 



from beets. In other words, we still have 

 to import six-sevenths of all the sugar we 

 use. In the United States there was man- 

 ufactured during the same time 270,000 

 tons of cane and 80,000 tone of beet sugar, 

 which gives 350,000 tons as the aggregate 

 product of the United States. 



THE FORESTRY PROBLEM. 



Nature prunes and saves; man cuts down 

 and destroys. Some rather extraordinary 

 work in the Adirondack woods emphasizes 

 this truth. In theory it may sound well to 

 say that only trees of a certain compara- 

 tively small diameter shall be left stand- 

 ing, but every woodsman knows that taking 

 a piece of the original forest, if the large 

 trees are cut down there will inevitably re- 

 sult injury to the smaller trees. It is too 

 harsh treatment, and nature rarely uses 

 harsh measures. The relation of the for- 

 est to the annual rainfall is important. It 

 is found that cutting away the forests does 

 not materially change the amount of the 

 rainfall. What it does do is to do away 

 with the capacity of the soil to hold back 

 the water from the clouds, the forest soil 

 having an increased amount of humas as 

 compared with cleaned land, will hold more 

 water. Especially on side hills where the 

 roots of trees hold the soil, when they are 

 removed the soil gradually wears away 

 leaving only the bare rock incapable of 

 holding any water. 



It is a well-known fact that many of the 

 smaller creeks, which before the country 

 was cleared never were dry, are now dry for 

 several months. The other result follows, 

 that spring floods increase in volume. It 

 was not the timber alone which was lost 

 when the forests were cleared, but it was 

 the loss in the capability of the land to 

 produce farm crops. 



Let the land or any part of it be re- 

 forested and this loss will, in a measure, 

 disappear. The Grape Belt. 



A GRECIAN INDUSTRY. 

 In his instructive correspondence from 

 historic Mediterranean countries Wm. E. 

 Curtis gives this picturesque account of 

 Corinthian currant culture: 



"From Patras to Corinth, along the edge 

 of the gulf, through olive groves and cur- 

 rant plantations, with a range of snow-clad 

 mountains on one side and picturesque hills 

 on the other, is a delightful journey. The 

 culture of currants seems to absorb the 

 greatest degree of attention, and they tell 

 me that the name of that toothsome little 

 fruit was formerly correnth, snd either 

 gave a name to the city or took one from it. 

 They raise currants differently down here 

 from what we do, and chiefly by the labor 

 of women. The earth between the rows is 

 plowed with a pair of oxen and a crooked 

 stick, and then the women of the neigh- 

 borhood go in with hoes and heap the earth 

 around the bushe?, which are cut down to 

 a single trunk every year. Around the 

 base they dig a hole, which is filled with 

 manure mixed with lime, to invigorate the 

 roots, and then covered with soil heaped 

 up, leaving ditches running at right angles, 

 which are frequently filled with water from 

 rese~voirs that are centuries old. The 

 water for irrigation comes from wells and is 

 pumped up into the reservoir by a mule or 

 a horse with a blanket tied over its head. 

 The animal walks the endless and eternal 

 circle and water pours out of a spout into 

 a great cement cistern set into the ground 

 at such an elevation as to give a natural 

 flow into the fields. 1 did not see any wind- 

 mill pumps or any other sort of arrange- 

 ment. Every fellow has an irrigation sys- 

 tem for himself. 



"The new branches that shoot out from 

 the trunks of the currant bushes in the 

 spring are Jaden with fruit in the fall. It 

 ia the seedless currant, white and black, 

 which you eat in plum pudding and mince 

 pies and currant cake. The fruit is picked 

 by the Greek girls, dried in the sun and 

 shipped to all civilized countries. Cur- 

 rants are the largest product and the source 

 of the greatest wealth in Greece. A large 

 proportion of them are used in France for 

 doctoring wines. I don't know how it is 

 done, but the Greeks say that French wine 

 owes its best flavor to their currants." 



