28 " THE LEAVES OF THE TREE Were FOB THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS." 



die summer. In July or August, with the thermometer registering from 130 to 137 

 degrees in the shade, it would be impossible for any living creature to exist in it 

 even for an hour." 



If "Death valley" was flooded from the sea or elsewhere, and surrounding 

 mountains properly clothed with our evergreen eucalypti, one very great 

 factor for good to thousands of struggling settlers and others far and 

 wide would most assuredly ere long follow, as the billions of disease 

 breeding germs now annually evolved in said valley and widely scattered 

 broadcast over land and sea by whirlwinds, would be drowned and 

 the surrounding air delightfully cooled, besides considerably lessen the 

 existing destructive storm creating cause. Some such extreme measures 

 must shortly be taken to transform American and other deserts from 

 their present dangerous condition, if we really wish to abate the now 

 hourly increasing cyclonic and torrental devastations all over the earth, for 

 notwithstanding our long practical denials that we are our brothers' 

 keepers, the immutable laws of nature which are the laws of Grod 

 teach a very different tale. The question has often been and is now 

 asked: " Why is it that Europe should have been so severely afflicted 

 by the cholera and other disease scourges from Asia ?" And all sorts of 

 surmises have been ventured on regarding the transmitting agency of 

 said scourges just as we now ponder anent the impending cholera epi- 

 demic from Europe to the United States and Australia quite oblivious 

 to the fact that we commenced our forest-lung destroying work in Asia, 

 and that the consequent " oriental afreets" or whirlwind sand-pillars of 

 the desert, have been and now are the real transmitting agents which 

 charge the " ariel reservoirs" with myriads of disease germs "seeking 

 whomsoere they may devour," often flooding ships in mid-ocean. 



IMMENSE VALUE OF THE AMERICAN GRAPE GROWING INDUSTRY. 



(From Harper's Weekly, July 18th, 1891.) 



A special investigation shows that in the several grape growing districts 

 in the United States 401,261 acres were set apart for the industry, 307.575 

 acres in bearing producing 573,139 tons of grapes, and 240,450 tons were 

 used in producing wine, making 24,306,905 gallons, 41,165 tons for raisins, 

 making 1,372,195 boxes of twenty pounds each, and 23,252 tons for dried 

 grapes and purposes other than table fruit. The total value of plant used 

 in the industry, 1889, is given as $155,661, 150; at the time of taking the 

 returns 200,780 persons were employed. 



OTHER FRUITS. 



(From the San Francisco Examiner of March 21th, 1892.) 

 'As the result of a careful compilation of information from the most reliable 

 sources, the growers themselves, the Census office has issued some interesting 

 figures upon the production of oranges, lemons, figs, almonds, cocoanuts and other 

 semi-tropical fruits and nuts in the United States. Numbers of acres of bearing 

 and non-bearing trees arid plants, 271,428.10; number of bearing trees and plants, 

 28,101,036; number of non-bearing trees and plants, 14,205,323; value of product 

 for year 1889, $14,116,226 59; estimated number of acres suitable for planting 

 tropical fruits and nuts, 24,710,879. 



The comparison between California and Florida in relation to fruit trees is in- 

 teresting. In this State there are 78,616.47 acres devoted to bearing and non-bear- 

 ing trees. Florida has 168,754 63. California has 2,652,021 bearing trees or 

 plants, while Florida boasts of 25,317,536. California has 4,247,789 non-bearing 



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