STATE LAWS FOR PROMOTION OF TREE-PLANTING. 203 



mountains. Many mines could not be worked at all, on account of want of timber, 

 and thus our main resource of existence — mining — would be severely crippled. Besides, 

 the large capital now invested in machinery would become uuprotifcable, aud still 

 greater sums of money would have to be yearly expended to supply us with the neces- 

 sary wood for building purposes and machinery. We must not console ourselves with 

 the thought that such a calamity is yet far off. A comparison of the condition of our 

 forests sixteen years ago, when our Territory began to settle up, with that at present, 

 and taking into consideration that there is a geometrically progressing consumptica 

 of wood to be anticipated, entitles us to the belief that twenty-five years from now the 

 devastation of our forests will be complete, and that our mountains then will rather 

 have the appearance of enormous ruins than that of an inviting field for human 

 enterpri><e. 



It would be a shame for an intelligent people to look with indifference at such an 

 approaching calamity, and it would be an unpardonable mistake in a wise government 

 not to provide in time, whatever may be the sacrifice, against an evil which, when once 

 it overtakes us, can never afterward be remedied, or at least not for centuries. So far 

 we have referred to the direct results, if we do not protect our forests against devasta- 

 tion ; but there are besides, indirectly connected with it, certain evils which still in- 

 crease the mischief. These are produced by losing the beneficial influences of our for- 

 ests upon climate and vegetation. A forest, or larger samjiles of trees aud bushes 

 growing rather in close proximity, is, so to say, a magazine of moisture, from which the 

 atmosphere is constantly supplied with this commodity. How great this exhalation 

 of moisture of a forest into the atmosphere must be can easily be concluded by stating 

 that experiments have shown that a single full-grown lime tree is able to exhale twenty 

 tons of water from spring to fall. Further, regular forests keep the soil in which their 

 roots grow in a comparatively loose condition, and thus enable the melting snows and 

 falling rains to easily sink into the ground, and in course of time are gradually given 

 back to the atmosphere by exhalations through the leaves, or run slowly off if there be 

 a surplus through springs into the large water-courses. They also attract the moisture 

 suspended in the air and conveyed there from other parts of the earth by the great at- 

 mospheric currents. In short, we may say, forests form natiu'al reservoirs of moisture ; 

 fertilize the atmosphere and prevent heavy rains from rushing suddenly down into the 

 valleys and causing floods. They keep up a lasting supply of water in the natural 

 81 reams, break the force of the winds, and exert generally a most beneficial influence 

 on climate and vegetation, and where irrigation is to be used they may be considered 

 their natural auxiliaries. This is exactly what we want in Colorado, where our clim- 

 ate is so dry that we are obliged to irrigate if we wish to raise crops, and where our 

 pasture regions will become more profitable the more our atmosphere is moistened. If 

 we continue the devast.ation of our present forests, we will certainly at the same time 

 destroy a great portion of our means to develop our agricultural and pastoral resources ; 

 and, taking this together with the above-mentioned dangers arising from actual want 

 of wood, we may well stt)p aud consider how to escape these calamities. It may be, 

 perhaps, not quite out of pluce here to refer to the exiierience made in this respect in 

 other countries, as well in ancient as in modern times. The Bible speaks of the cedars 

 of Lebanon as large and beautiful trees; the country around was then thickly settled. 

 At present, according to a late report, only a few dwarfy trees are there to be found, 

 and the adjoining country is a perfect desert, only able to support a few nomadic 

 hordes. Spain, at the time of the Roman republic, was covered with majestic forests, 

 and the Romans bnihtheir ship.« there, and the country was renowned for its fertility. 

 At present, their forests have disappeared to a great exfent; agriculture has become 

 of little profit, and stock-raising has taken its place, and a poor, scanty population, 

 about one-third of its former number, n 'W inhabits the peninsula. We read the same 

 of the north coast of Africa, Asia Minor, Persia, Greece, Turkey, and many other coun- 

 tries. Everywhere the fertility of the soil has greatly diminished with the disappear- 

 ance of the forests, and where once 300,000,000 of people were living we can now 

 hardly count 50,000,000. But more convincing are the experiences of modern times 

 in Russia, France, South Africa, and even some parts of the United States, especially 

 in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Everywhere in these countries the forests were cut down 

 without being replanted, the natural results of which are they now sufter from frequent 

 droughts, floods, and a lower temperature in winter, and a frequent failure of their 

 crops in consequence. 



Of all Europe only Germany escaped these evils, and this only by introducing in 

 time a suitable system of forest-culture, which is now brought almost to perfection, 

 and no expense and care are spared to sustain it. Great etibrts have been made for 

 Bome time i^ast all over Europe, outside of Germany, to introduce this system, and 

 even an international forest law is taken into serious contemplation by all sections of 

 Europe. As far as we in Colorado are concerned, we cannot afford to delay any longer 

 to make at least some movement to save our forests and to attempt to extend them as 

 soon as possible even into our plains, if we wish to fully develop our agricultural, 

 pastoral, aud mining interests, aud to escape the danger of becoming destitute of the 



