1&B2. 



-i^ UXmoiS FAEMEE. 



131 



the mechanic who longs for the time when 

 he will own a tree. " ■^, 



WHY TREES ABE NEEDED. 



!When the Almighty raised the prairie for 

 the last time from out the deep blue sea and 

 permitted the sun to kiss dry the undulating 

 surface that the up springing grass might 

 carpet it for the buffaloo and elk, JHe cut 

 great dead furrows with their sweeping 

 curves for the rivers, and planted their bor- 

 ders with trees, for the landscape without 

 them would be a wild dreary waste, and the 

 sun would too soon lick up the moisture that 

 the clouds might occasionally shower down, 

 and the prairies would have become a barren 

 waste ; but He protected the rivers from too 

 sudden evaporation by the sinidus belts of 

 river forest, and where the lazy pond basked 

 in the sun or a swamp intervened, there 

 grew upon their eastern margins the groves 

 for shelter from the morning sun. The sur- 

 face where no tree sent up its sheltering 

 arms, was covered with the thick matted 

 grass to shut out the sun from drinking up 

 the moisture from the porous soil. The 

 river belts, the wood- crowned prairie swells 

 and swamp protecting groves, drew down 

 the lightning from the clouds laden with 

 rain, that had been gathered from the gulf, 

 and now wending their way to the northern 

 lakes ; but with the discharge of electricity 

 came the needed shower, and the clouds 

 went up to the lake region nearly dndned of 

 their moisture. Without trees we would 

 have no summer showers, for no lightning 

 would disturb the misty wreaths, gather them 

 into rain drops too heavy for the gauzy fabric 

 of the wind driven cloud, to longer hold 

 within their grasp. ._ 



MAN HAS CHANGED THE HTSEOMETIC 

 , ^ 5»NDITI0N OTv;TH^ P]E^3^^ ; ^ ; 



Wltfen Lasalle and ]1jbe#([ille,''uiidert1ife 

 direcfion of Louis XIV of France, took 

 possession of the prairie country lying be- 

 tween the great lakes and the low^r Hissis- 

 lippi, they found the rivers filled to tbeir 



margins, the ponds and sloughs bridged with 

 water lillies, while the marshes sheltered 

 their oozy beds with weeds and rank grass. 

 1 be lazy waters made slow progress through 

 the fallen timber of the woodland slough, 

 or the tangled grass and rushes of the pnd' 

 rie bottoms. The heavy rains sunk int«|, 

 the earth, and was protected from the noon- . 

 day sun by rank grass and the broad leaves 

 of the summer flora, and by thus maintain?, 

 ing a constant moisture, the vegetation b€h 

 came rank, the night air was saturated with 

 miasmatic dew ttat gave still greater vigor 

 to plant life, but to persons exposed to ite 

 influence, pestilent with ague and other bil- 

 lious disease. The crops of the first settleis 

 were perfect marvels for quantity and 

 quality, but when we take into consideration 

 that they were grown in an atmosphere sat- 

 urated with carbonic acid and amonia, sup- 

 plied from the decomposition of the rank 

 vegetation and slow evaporation of the sur- 

 face, we should cease to wonder. The 

 climate was genial, sofik and balmy, for the 

 valley of the west was filled with a sea erf j; 

 warm damp atmosphere, hemmed in by the 

 immense woodlands to the east and southy: 

 and receiving constant accessions from the 

 west and north. Thus the great prairie 

 slopes presented to the adventurist a soil uur 

 surpassed in fertility, and a climate mild aa < 

 though encompassed by wide seas. The > 

 " tr^de winds" that for six months of the f, 

 year gave their ceaseless volume of heated ^^ 

 air through the gulf, and over the great \ 

 forests of the south into this Arcadia, held 

 the cold winds of the north in cheek, and so *. 

 modified their efiects that sudden changes off- 

 climate were almost unknown. Belts of tim- ■ 

 ber and extended groves were then of less "^ 

 consequlence, for the air was always damp. ^ 

 The trade winds had not as yet been robbed i 

 of their moisture by the great belt of forest "^ 

 that flanked the lower Mississippi, the rivers - 

 of the north with their constant flow, gave 

 oflF their watery particles as they wended ' 

 their slow maroli to tHe south, and the wall ' 



