ARBOR DA V MANUAL . 
305 
CUTTING OFF THE FORESTS. 
EFFECT IN CENTRAL NEW YORK. 
T HERE is abundant evidence in America of the effects of cutting off the 
forests. In Central New York streams that thirty or forty years ago kept 
the ponds well filled for the saw-mill and grist-mill, and furnished a never-fail¬ 
ing supply of running water for the farm, are now dry in summer, with the ex¬ 
ception of here and there a stagnant pool; the dam is decayed and washed away, 
the mills gone, and the once picturesque scene is changed to that of desolation. 
Yet, with the warm rains of spring and the melting snows, the streams overflow 
their banks, the swift waters carry away fences, bridges, and embankments. 
Spring opens later. The young cattle were wont to be turned into the wood- 
sheltered pasture about the first of April; now they are kept shut up until the 
middle of May. Peach orchards that were sure to be loaded every year with 
luscious fruit have almost disappeared, and the crop is the exception rather 
than the rule. The extremes of heat and cold are greater, and droughts in 
summer and floods in springtime are more frequent and more destructive. 
Trace the stream* from its source to the lakef and the cause of these things is 
apparent. The old tamarack swamp that used to supply the boys and girls 
with aromatic gum, and in which the creek had its source, has all been cut 
away. The thickly-wooded black-ash swamps, through which the stream ran 
in its course to the lake, have been cleared, and their marshy areas have given 
place to cultivated fields and pastures. The cutting away the forests from the 
headwaters and the banks of this stream accounts for the changes I have noted, 
and this picture, I doubt not, is a very familiar one in the New England and Mid¬ 
dle States. It is not difficult for men who know the effects of cutting the timber 
from small areas around the headwaters of the smaller streams to understand 
why summer navigation in the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Ohio, has 
become difficult and at times impossible where it-was easy and constant a few 
yqars ago ; or why the Hudson and the Connecticut are much lower in summer 
and higher in spring than in former years. The partial deforesting of the 
Adirondack region has materially affected the flow of the Hudson, the Mohawk, 
the Black, and other rivers, and sufficiently demonstrated the fact that were 
this great watershed of New York stripped of its forest covering, the Empire 
State would lose her prestige, and New York city her rank as the first commer¬ 
cial city of the New World. 
Warren Higley, President American B'orestry Congress, 1885. 
In such green, palaces the first kings reigned ; 
Slept in their shade, and angels entertained. 
With such old counsellors they did advise, 
And by frequenting sacred shades grew wise.” 
*Owasco creek in Cayuga county. tOwasco lake. 
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