WARNINGS FROM HISTORY 307 



and then from the slopes; the limestone, which is 

 now covered with productive humus, loam and clay, 

 will be laid bare; the naked rocks will reflect the 

 rays of the sun and increase the summer heat; the 

 north storms will blow unhindered over the country, 

 and every change of the wind will cause an abrupt 

 change in the temperature. The rainfall will be 

 diminished and become irregular. Snow and rain- 

 water will at once run down in the valleys and cause 

 periodical freshets, which will ultimately carry away 

 the best part of the soil, even from the valleys. 

 Such will be the unavoidable results of further 

 devastation of timber. 



KENTUCKY 



HON. CASSIUS M. CLAY, of Kentucky, said before 

 the American Forestry Congress at Cincinnati: 

 "I remember, when the forests were hardly broken 

 here, that springs of water were very frequent and 

 perennial. The rivulets and creeks and rivers had 

 a perpetual flow. These have now changed. The 

 rivulets and creeks are now dried up in summer, and 

 the fish so often caught by me in earlier years are 

 gone. Not one spring in a thousand remains. 

 Indian corn was generally planted in March, and the 

 rains and exhalations of moisture from the surround- 

 ings made crops successful every year. Now, the 

 destruction of the forests has lost to us that bed of 



