WARNINGS FROM HISTORY 309 



for our supply; and our apples and other orchard 

 fruits now come from beyond the limits of New 

 England. The failure of these and other crops in 

 the older states is generally ascribed to the exhaus- 

 tion of the soil; but with greater reason it can be 

 referred to the destruction of the forests which 

 sheltered us from the cold winds of the north and 

 west, and which, keeping the soil under their shade 

 cool in summer and warm in winter, acted at once 

 as material barriers, and reservoirs of moisture." 



THE NORTHWEST 



"I HAD an opportunity," says Mr. Rothe, "to 

 observe and study the results caused by the destruc- 

 tion of the forests in the Northwest. Thirty years 

 ago steamboats drawing six feet of water made regular 

 trips on the Upper Mississippi up to St. Paul. Now 

 the navigation with boats of half that draft is 

 uncertain. Nearly all the tributaries of the Upper 

 Mississippi have also lost one-half, or even more, 

 of their former supply of water. Inundations in the 

 spring are now frequent, while now in the summer 

 time the depth of many of these rivers average hardly 

 more inches than could be measured by feet thirty 

 years ago. Water-powers, which were formerly 

 deemed to be inexhaustible, have entirely been aban- 

 doned, or their failing motive power has been 

 replaced by steam. In the remembrance of the older 



