no Notes and Gleanings. 



field is man's life.' " Rev. F. Starr, jun., of St. Louis, Mo., in a very able article on 

 American forests (which every one ought to read), published in the Patent-office 

 Report for 1865, says, " We ought to learn from the experience of other nations 

 great and terrible lessons, without madly insisting upon suffering the same dis- 

 asters ourselves. The history of the world presents to us a fearful record re- 

 specting the destruction of the forests. Palestine and Syria, Egypt and Italy, 

 France and Sp^in, have seen some of their most populous regions turned into 

 forsaken wilderpesses, and their most fertile land into sandy deserts. The dan- 

 ger to our land is near at hand, — • nearer by thirty years than the most intelligent 

 suppose. We need immediate action, both for prevention and restoration." 

 Hear the words of Hon. G. P. Marsh, than whom, perhaps, no other is equally 

 qualified to speak on this subject. His great natural gifts, high position, exten- 

 sive travels, and remarkable powers of observation, should give his words the 

 greatest authority and power. He says, "There are parts of Asia Minor, of 

 Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine Europe, where the operation of 

 causes set in motion by man has brought the face of the earth to a desolation 

 almost as complete as that of the moon ; though, within the brief space of 

 time men call the ' historical period,' they are known to have been covered with 

 luxuriant woods, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows. They are now too far 

 deteriorated to be reclaimed by man ; nor can they again become fitted for human 

 use, except through great geological changes, or other mysterious influences or 

 agencies of which we have no present knowledge, and over which we have no 

 prospective control. The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its noblest 

 inhabitants ; and another era of equal human crime and human improvidence, 

 and of like duration, with that through which traces of that crime and improvi- 

 dence extend, would reduce it to such a condition of impoverished productive- 

 ness, of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as to threaten the deprivation, 

 barbarism, and perhaps even extinction, of the species. 



" The destructive changes occasioned by the agency of man upon the flanks 

 of the Alps, the Apennines, the Pyrenees, and other mountain-ranges in Central 

 and Southern Europe, and the progress of physical deterioration, have become 

 so rapid, that, in some localities, a single generation has witnessed the begin- 

 ning and the end of the melancholy revolution. It is certain that a desolation 

 like that which has overwhelmed many once beautiful and fertile regions of 

 Europe awaits an important part of the territory of the United States, unless 

 prompt measures are takan to check the action of destructive causes already in 

 operation." 



These interesting facts should warn us of the impending danger to our 

 beloved country, and urge us to the most energetic efforts. We should endeavor 

 to meet the question both through private and legislative action. 



In reference to large tracts of timber-land yet in the possession of the Gov- 

 ernment, surveys defining the exact boundary of every section, and strips of 

 timber most favorably situated for wind-breaks, sacredly preserved from the 

 woodman's axe under heavy penalties, the same could be accomplished by pri- 

 vate enterprise and sympathetic eflfort in reference to land already in their pos- 

 session. The great Avant of our country is not so much large and unbroken 



