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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. Xo 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. Xo 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 inscriiDtion dedicated to Semiramis (2000 B. C.) : 

 " I 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. 

 Xo 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. Xo one acquainted with 

 the true cause would attribute to change of climate the increased 

 productiveness of Lombard}' since the restoration of its excellent 

 system of canals and irrigation, or the gi'eat 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, 



