14 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 
to dry and bake, which is very destructive to growing crops. This is greatly 
iessened where dense wood growths are left here and there to protect inter- 
vening farm lands, while the millions of leaves, twigs and tree tops within the 
forest attract the moisture-laden clouds and influence précipitation. 
Americans may well receive instruction from Syria regarding the indis- 
criminate clearing of extensive forest areas without an effort at reforesting a 
portion. 
We have authority from Holy Writ that one thousand years B. C., the 
eastern shore of the Mediterranean was the seat of several very large cities, 
having extended maritime commerce. The mountain region bordering the sea 
for fully one hundred miles, and extending some thirty-five miles inland, was 
covered with a dense forest comprising the Cedar of Lebanon, fir and sandal 
~vood, all of them most valued timbers, covering an area of 3,500 square miles. 
(2 Kings, 19: 23.) 
The inhabitants of Sidon were largely engaged in cutting, hewing and 
shipping to various seaports, timbers of the forests of Mount Lebanon, which 
lay in close proximity to their city. Sidon was a great lumber mart, while 
the Sidonians had become very skillful axemen. (2 Chron., 2: 8.) 
No doubt both the great cities of Sidon and Tyre were largely constructed 
of lumber which had been grown upon the ridges and in the vales of their 
mountains. Their ships were built of cedar, the masts of fir and the oars of 
oak. (Ezekiel, 27: 3, 8.) 
King Solomon procured all the timbers entering into the construction of 
the temple, as well as the great House of State, together with the residence of 
Pharaoh's daughter and other structures, from this great forest, entering into 
a compact with Hiram, the King of Tyre, in whose domain it lay, in which he 
supplied 80,000 laborers to assist Hiram in cutting and hewing the trees, which 
cecupied twenty years. (Ist Kings, 9:10.) The timbers were loaded on ships 
and conveyed to Joppa, whence the distance to Jerusalem was about forty-five 
miles by direct line. 
‘The Sidonians were employed to do the more particular work, as Solomon 
said, ‘For thou knowest there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber 
like unto the Sidonians.” (1st Kings, 5:6.) 
The region about Jerusalem was fertile, inasmuch as Solomon was enabled 
to provision the immense levies of laborers, 153,600 men, who were engaged 
upon the public works for so long a period (twenty years) ; and in addition, he 
supplied Hiram with 142,000 bushels of wheat and as much barley, besides 
145,000 gallons of wine and a similar quantity of oil, year by year, which could 
not have been done were the country as barren as it is today. 
The extensive forests were cut down, never again to be renewed: with 
their destruction, the fertile soil disappeared; the moisture-laden clouds were 
no longer attracted to the mountains of Syria, which are to this day a barren 
waste, affording scant subsistence to a sparse population. 
The brooks of Palestine have become mere rivulets, and the country pos- 
sesses slight fertility, while throughout Syria stone is the only material for 
building, and wood is as precious as gold. 
