42 MAN ON THE LANDSCAPE 



green thing, prevented revegetation. The soil went into the Persian 

 Gulf and the Mediterranean. Today a more desolate area than the 

 Holy Lands would be hard to find. "Milk and honey" gave way to 

 erosion and hardship. 



North China reveals the same story. An increasing population 

 forced the farm front higher and higher into the hills, the forests were 

 cut off, erosion began, silt choked the channel of the great Yellow 

 river on its way to the Yellow sea (appropriate names) floods, death, 

 crop destruction and famine followed. The stolid Chinese came to 

 accept this as the natural order of life. 



The bare, rocky hills of Greece today could not possibly support 

 such a civilization as developed there during the millenium before 

 Christ. 



It took Italy a thousand years to recover from the land misman- 

 agement which accompanied the decline of the Roman Empire. Of 

 all lands, hilly forest when converted to agriculture is most difficult 

 to manage for permanent food production, which is not its primary 

 natural use. (Fig. 17.) The mountains and hills of the Italian penin- 

 sula were once forest lands. When, as cleared farms, they fell into 

 the hands of rich Romans (absentee owners with no understanding 

 of land) and became slave or serf operated estates, Rome was doomed. 

 The love of the freeman for his land was gone from the hills; and 

 when it went the soil started to go. By 476, when Rome was finished, 

 there were comparatively few people left on the impoverished farms. 



Today there is not a forest along the Mediterranean coast any- 

 where. Many Italians bake bread by using straw for fuel. What 

 small forests exist back in the hills are managed with the care we give 

 our city parks. Each tree is cut under strict supervision, and close 

 to the ground. The citizen lucky enough to be given the privilege 

 of cutting one, carries home every twig and leaf for his oven. Italy 

 has practically no coal or petroleum of her own and fuel is a pressing 

 and distressing problem. 



Elsewhere in Europe today forests receive the most careful con- 

 sideration. As to land destruction following forest clearing, this has 

 not been serious in north and west Europe because of the gentle 

 rains, moderate slopes, and the slowly developed, well adjusted agri- 

 culture. 



In the United States we find a situation which is alarming except 

 to the uninformed, the selfish, or the stupid citizen. The forests were 

 an important cog in the development of the country. The term 

 "development" as applied to resources by most commercial and in- 

 dustrial interests has been, and in too many instances still is, ana- 

 lagous to your "development" of a Thanksgiving dinner sitting be- 

 fore you on the table. 



The U. S. Forest Service states that we are cutting, burning, or 

 otherwise losing trees approximately twice as fast as the forests are re- 

 placing these losses, 



