1882.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMEK. 



165 



the popular lielief at this time. Wliile in the 

 Eastern Statrs diuliig the cxccs.sive ilrmiglit 

 of tho past siiiniuer men wore constantly at- 

 tributing the failure of rain to the removal of 

 the forests from our older States; we read in 

 the pnlilic journals that Nebraska was favored 

 with a iiioie copious and more equably dis- 

 tributed supply of rain than in any former 

 year within the history of that State. It was 

 claimed that the increased amount of moist- 

 ure was due to the planting of trees, and that 

 a sullicient breadth of forest growth was now 

 jilanted to secure the State against drou;;ht for 

 all coming time. This tradition is that the 

 growth of trees favors tlie increase of rain, 

 and that their removal is followc^d by drought. 

 It is only within the present year that this 

 theory has been combated by Professor .T. D. 

 Whitney, in his recently published mono- 

 giaph on " Climatic Changes." The views 

 therein set forth have not as yet been widely 

 disseminated. They are so radically opposed 

 to the oi)inions commonly held that even if 

 made familiar through the public prints, they 

 are not likely soon to gain general acceptance. 



Against the popular notion that the certain 

 drying-up of the lands is the result of remov- 

 ing the forests, the Professor claims that 

 " the question of desiccation is one essential- 

 ly removed from the domain of man's in- 

 fluence." He would prove this to be the case 

 by showing that the process began in geologi- 

 cal epochs, long before man was on the earth 

 to interfere with any of the operations of 

 nature, that it has been continued down into 

 historic times, and that it is now going on in 

 the same general way, neither hastened nor 

 retarded by the intervention of human agency. 

 He believes that "the human race is no way re- 

 sponsible for the changes which have brought 

 and are bringing ruin upon those countries 

 which, once prosperous, have novf sunk into 

 comparative decay." Egypt and the coun- 

 tries north of the Mediterranean are in- 

 stanced as showing decay from a drying-np of 

 the land and an increasing absence of mois- 

 ture from the atmosphere. " As a rule, these 

 nations have reached a stage of decadence 

 from which they can never rise to occupy 

 again the position which they have lo.st." 

 No eftbrts of man are of the slightest avail to 

 restore the former conditions of climate by 

 planting forests or by any other means. There 

 has been a lo.ss rather than a gain in the quanti- 

 ty and frequency of rain in Egypt since the be- 

 ginning of this century, despite the vigorous 

 measures of the Government in planting 

 forest trees. 



Professor Whitney shows from many in- 

 stances observed in our own land that the re- 

 moval of forests has nothing to do with tiie 

 falling-ofl' in the amount or the frequency of 

 rain, neither docs the planting of trees occa- 

 sion any increase in this, for wliile the Great 

 Salt Lake has lieen ri.sing for some years 

 since the Mormons began planting trees u- on 

 its shores, in neighboring States, the Winne- 

 mucca and the Pyramid lakes have been ris- 

 ing in an equally rapid ratio although their 

 shores "were being stripped of their trees 

 with the greatest rapidity." " There is just 

 as much reason for inferring that the rise of 

 these latter was produced by disforesting the 

 country as that the similar increase of Great 

 Salt Lake was the result of tree-planting by 



the Mormons ; in other words, there is no 

 truth in eitherstatcment." So plainly and so 

 boldly are set forth these scientific principles ! 

 It is not the wasteful destruction of forests 

 bylnan in a wholesale slaughter and burning 

 which has brouiiht the desolation of dryness 

 upon so many desert regions of the globe, but 

 rather the failure of rain from wholly natural 

 causes which has led to the <lisappearauce of 

 the woods. There is left no ground to hope 

 that civilization will ever reaiipear in lands it 

 has once forsaken if the operations of nature 

 continue constant. The loss of forests and 

 the deterioration of soils are but examples of 

 the dithculties which man meets in his strug- 

 gles against unfavorable physical conditions, 

 and are proofs of liis inability to overcome 

 them. Doctrines like these seem tinged wiih 

 the despairing thought of fatalism. 



All that Profes.sor Whitney has to say upon 

 the cultivation of forests comes in incidental- 

 ly to help out tlie discussion of "Climatic 

 Changes." Since that work was published in 

 the spring some statistics representing for- 

 estry have been published by the Census Piu- 

 reau. affording much interesting and timely 

 information. These statistics were collected 

 by Professor Sargent, who has made this 

 matter a subject of special study. In his con- 

 tribution to The North American Bevieio for 

 October, on "The Protection of Forests," he 

 presents views identical with those of Profes- 

 sor Whitney, and is no less clear and em- 

 phatic iu expressing them. "The popular 

 belief that forests affect the rainfall has too 

 long," he says, "confused the diseu.ssion of 

 the forest question, and carried it far beyond 

 its legitimate limits." He is positive that 

 trees have no power to increase the quantity 

 of rain. lie manifests not the slightest faith 

 in the endeavors of Government and of indi- 

 viduals to overcome the natural dryness of 

 soils and of climate by planting forests. On 

 the contrary, he looks upon this dryness as 

 the cause and not the effect of the lack of 

 trees. Rain he regards as the agency which 

 will clothe the treeless regions of the interior 

 with woods. Indeed, he declares that " the 

 position of the forests and plains of North 

 America can be explained upon no other 

 theory." From this it will naturally be in- 

 ferred that the density of the on'ginal forests 

 varies directly with the rainfall. 



Here is a point which seems not well estab- 

 lished. To the unscientilic observer rain 

 does not seem to be the one sole thing essen- 

 tial to the growth of forests on the plains in 

 the Mississippi Valley. Iih'eu the casual 

 visitor to that section must have noticed pe- 

 culiarities in the growth of timber wliicli 

 climatic conditions will not account for. The 

 character of the soil seems to have much to 

 do with the kind of growth that covers it. 

 Let the peculiar soil of the Illinois prairies be 

 met witii in the timber region of Wisconsin, 

 as it will at times be met with even north of 

 the Fox River, and it will be found covered 

 with luxuriant grass Just as would be the 

 case with a similar piece of ground located in 

 southern Illinois. On the other hand, a de- 

 posit of drift, coarse iu texture, and mineral 

 in its comixisitiou, occuiring a^ it sometimes 

 does iu Illinois, will be found covered with a 

 growth of trees which not even the assaults 

 of fire from the surrounding prairies have 



been able to exterminate. And yet these 

 wooded gravel-beds are often higher than the 

 grassy lands about thetn, and their loose 

 texture lets the rains run through much 

 faster than the water-drains olT the level 

 lands around. 



Again, in those regions which are desig- 

 nated on the majjS as treeless, wherever the 

 ledge crops out along llie borders of ravines, 

 many varieties of trees, as cedars and crab- 

 apples, take root in the crevices of the rock 

 and flourish there. It may be said that these 

 owe their existence to the water oozing from 

 the ledge or trickling down its sides. That 

 this is not the case, liowever, will be seen 

 from the fact that where the debris — piles ot 

 loose chips and fragments of the rock lying 

 heaped against the basi^ — becomes suthciently 

 imlverized to support trees under our New- 

 England climate, it bears them just as natur- 

 ally there ; and in general, wherever in the 

 West the soil is formed from the underlaying 

 ledge, whether that be lime or sandstone, 

 slate or granite, there its natural covering 

 will be a luxuriant growth of forest trees. 

 We are indebted for the extensive pineries of 

 northern Wisconsin and Michigan to the cir- 

 cumstances that all that region is overspread 

 with drift similar in its character to the drift 

 which abounds in those parts of Maine 

 where pine is the native growth. Condi- 

 tions of soil appear to have as much to do 

 with determining the kind of growth upon 

 it, whether trees or grass, as do conditions of 

 climate. That trees are not born of the co- 

 piousness and frequency of rains is evident 

 from this, that when it became desirable 

 some generations ago to convert old fields 

 and pasture lands in the west of Scotland 

 into timber, it was found necessary to plant 

 young trees, since these did not spriug up on 

 the abandoned farms as they would do under 

 similar circumstances on the hillsides of New 

 England. And yet Scotland has a climate 

 proverbially moist. Agaiu, here is our own 

 coiinti7, of all the lands once covered with 

 trees, none are slower to renew their forest 

 growth than some of the rocky pastures about 

 Cape Ann, where excessive drought is much 

 less frequent and less severe than in the well- 

 wooded interior. May it not be the case that 

 on lands long kept in grass and where the 

 dampness of the sea-air maintains a well- 

 matted sod, the seeds of trees fail to germi- 

 nate, or, if they do, have the young life choked 

 out of them by the all-engrossing grasses ? 

 And may it not with good reason be sup- 

 posed that the treeless condition of the prai- 

 ries of the West is largely owing to the fact 

 that there, too, the grasses have assumed and 

 maintained the right of eminent domain V — 

 Isaac liassctt Choate, Camhridge, Mass., ISejA. 

 30, 1882, in New York Tribune. 



HEAVY MANURING, AND HOW.> 

 Probably very few men iu the West spend 

 so much for fertilizers upon an equal area of 

 land as I do. I am cultivating about forty- 

 five acres, and, although I get fertilizers at a 

 small cost as ccunpared with prices about 

 Eastern cities^ yet their cost upon that sur- 

 face this season will not be less than .$2,000, 

 A large share of this amount has already 

 been returned to me, and unless the final 

 result this season belies all present iudica- 



