FORESTS.

If there is any one duty which more than another we owe it to our

children and our children's children to perform at once, it is to save

the forests of this country, for they constitute the first and most

important element in the conservation of the natural resources of the

country. There are of course two kinds of natural resources, One is the

kind which can only be used as part of a process of exhaustion; this is

true of mines, natural oil and gas wells, and the like. The other, and

of course ultimately by far the most important, includes the resources

which can be improved in the process of wise use; the soil, the rivers,

and the forests come under this head. Any really civilized nation will

so use all of these three great national assets that the nation will

have their benefit in the future. Just as a farmer, after all his life

making his living from his farm, will, if he is an expert farmer, leave

it as an asset of increased value to his son, so we should leave our

national domain to our children, increased in value and not worn out.

There are small sections of our own country, in the East and the West,

in the Adriondacks, the White Mountains, and the Appalachians, and in

the Rocky Mountains, where we can already see for ourselves the damage

in the shape of permanent injury to the soil and the river systems

which comes from reckless deforestation. It matters not whether this

deforestation is due to the actual reckless cutting of timber, to the

fires that inevitably follow such reckless cutting of timber, or to

reckless and uncontrolled grazing, especially by the great migratory

bands of sheep, the unchecked wandering of which over the country means

destruction to forests and disaster to the small home makers, the

settlers of limited means.

Shortsighted persons, or persons blinded to the future by desire to

make money in every way out of the present, sometimes speak as if no

great damage would be done by the reckless destruction of our forests.

It is difficult to have patience with the arguments of these persons.

Thanks to our own recklessness in the use of our splendid forests, we

have already crossed the verge of a timber famine in this country, and

no measures that we now take can, at least for many years, undo the

mischief that has already been done. But we can prevent further

mischief being done; and it would be in the highest degree

reprehensible to let any consideration of temporary convenience or

temporary cost interfere with such action, especially as regards the

National Forests which the nation can now, at this very moment,

control.

All serious students of the question are aware of the great damage that

has been done in the Mediterranean countries of Europe, Asia, and

Africa by deforestation. The similar damage that has been done in

Eastern Asia is less well known. A recent investigation into conditions

in North China by Mr. Frank N. Meyer, of the Bureau of Plant Industry

of the United States Department of Agriculture, has incidentally

furnished in very striking fashion proof of the ruin that comes from

reckless deforestation of mountains, and of the further fact that the

damage once done may prove practically irreparable. So important are

these investigations that I herewith attach as an appendix to my

message certain photographs showing present conditions in China. They

show in vivid fashion the appalling desolation, taking the shape of

barren mountains and gravel and sand-covered plains, which immediately

follows and depends upon the deforestation of the mountains. Not many

centuries ago the country of northern China was one of the most fertile

and beautiful spots in the entire world, and was heavily forested. We

know this not only from the old Chinese records, but from the accounts

given by the traveler, Marco Polo. He, for instance, mentions that in

visiting the provinces of Shansi and Shensi he observed many

plantations of mulberry trees. Now there is hardly a single mulberry

tree in either of these provinces, and the culture of the silkworm has

moved farther south, to regions of atmospheric moisture. As an

illustration of the complete change in the rivers, we may take Polo's

statement that a certain river, the Hun Ho, was so large and deep that

merchants ascended it from the sea with heavily laden boats; today this

river is simply a broad sandy bed, with shallow, rapid currents

wandering hither and thither across it, absolutely unnavigable. But we

do not have to depend upon written records. The dry wells, and the

wells with water far below the former watermark, bear testimony to the

good days of the past and the evil days of the present. Wherever the

native vegetation has been allowed to remain, as, for instance, here

and there around a sacred temple or imperial burying ground, there are

still huge trees and tangled jungle, fragments of the glorious ancient

forests. The thick, matted forest growth formerly covered the mountains

to their summits. All natural factors favored this dense forest growth,

and as long as it was permitted to exist the plains at the foot of the

mountains were among the most fertile on the globe, and the whole

country was a garden. Not the slightest effort was made, however, to

prevent the unchecked cutting of the trees, or to secure reforestation.

Doubtless for many centuries the tree-cutting by the inhabitants of the

mountains worked but slowly in bringing about the changes that have now

come to pass; doubtless for generations the inroads were scarcely

noticeable. But there came a time when the forest had shrunk

sufficiently to make each year's cutting a serious matter, and from

that time on the destruction proceeded with appalling rapidity; for of

course each year of destruction rendered the forest less able to

recuperate, less able to resist next year's inroad. Mr. Meyer describes

the ceaseless progress of the destruction even now, when there is so

little left to destroy. Every morning men and boys go out armed with

mattox or axe, scale the steepest mountain sides, and cut down and grub

out, root and branch, the small trees and shrubs still to be found. The

big trees disappeared centuries ago, so that now one of these is never

seen save in the neighborhood of temples, where they are artificially

protected; and even here it takes all the watch and care of the

tree-loving priests to prevent their destruction. Each family, each

community, where there is no common care exercised in the interest of

all of them to prevent deforestation, finds its profit in the immediate

use of the fuel which would otherwise be used by some other family or

some other community. In the total absence of regulation of the matter

in the interest of the whole people, each small group is inevitably

pushed into a policy of destruction which can not afford to take

thought for the morrow. This is just one of those matters which it is

fatal to leave to unsupervised individual control. The forest can only

be protected by the State, by the Nation; and the liberty of action of

individuals must be conditioned upon what the State or Nation

determines to be necessary for the common safety.

The lesson of deforestation in China is a lesson which mankind should

have learned many times already from what has occurred in other places.

Denudation leaves naked soil; then gullying cuts down to the bare rock;

and meanwhile the rock-waste buries the bottomlands. When the soil is

gone, men must go; and the process does not take long.

This ruthless destruction of the forests in northern China has brought

about, or has aided in bringing about, desolation, just as the

destruction of the forests in central Asia aid in bringing ruin to the

once rich central Asian cities; just as the destruction of the forest

in northern Africa helped towards the ruin of a region that was a

fertile granary in Roman days. Shortsighted man, whether barbaric,

semi-civilized, or what he mistakenly regards as fully civilized, when

he has destroyed the forests, has rendered certain the ultimate

destruction of the land itself. In northern China the mountains are now

such as are shown by the accompanying photographs, absolutely barren

peaks. Not only have the forests been destroyed, but because of their

destruction the soil has been washed off the naked rock. The terrible

consequence is that it is impossible now to undo the damage that has

been done. Many centuries would have to pass before soil would again

collect, or could be made to collect, in sufficient quantity once more

to support the old-time forest growth. In consequence the Mongol Desert

is practically extending eastward over northern China. The climate has

changed and is still changing. It has changed even within the last half

century, as the work of tree destruction has been consummated. The

great masses of arboreal vegetation on the mountains formerly absorbed

the heat of the sun and sent up currents of cool air which brought the

moisture-laden clouds lower and forced them to precipitate in rain a

part of their burden of water. Now that there is no vegetation, the

barren mountains, scorched by the sun, send up currents of heated air

which drive away instead of attracting the rain clouds, and cause their

moisture to be disseminated. In consequence, instead of the regular and

plentiful rains which existed in these regions of China when the

forests were still in evidence, the unfortunate inhabitants of the

deforested lands now see their crops wither for lack of rainfall, while

the seasons grow more and more irregular; and as the air becomes dryer

certain crops refuse longer to grow at all. That everything dries out

faster than formerly is shown by the fact that the level of the wells

all over the land has sunk perceptibly, many of them having become

totally dry. In addition to the resulting agricultural distress, the

watercourses have changed. Formerly they were narrow and deep, with an

abundance of clear water the year around; for the roots and humus of

the forests caught the rainwater and let it escape by slow, regular

seepage. They have now become broad, shallow stream beds, in which

muddy water trickles in slender currents during the dry seasons, while

when it rains there are freshets, and roaring muddy torrents come

tearing down, bringing disaster and destruction everywhere. Moreover,

these floods and freshets, which diversify the general dryness, wash

away from the mountain sides, and either wash away or cover in the

valleys, the rich fertile soil which it took tens of thousands of years

for Nature to form; and it is lost forever, and until the forests grow

again it can not be replaced. The sand and stones from the mountain

sides are washed loose and come rolling down to cover the arable lands,

and in consequence, throughout this part of China, many formerly rich

districts are now sandy wastes, useless for human cultivation and even

for pasture. The cities have been of course seriously affected, for the

streams have gradually ceased to be navigable. There is testimony that

even within the memory of men now living there has been a serious

diminution of the rainfall of northeastern China. The level of the

Sungari River in northern Manchuria has been sensibly lowered during

the last fifty years, at least partly as the result of the

indiscriminate rutting of the forests forming its watershed. Almost all

the rivers of northern China have become uncontrollable, and very

dangerous to the dwellers along their banks, as a direct result of the

destruction of the forests. The journey from Pekin to Jehol shows in

melancholy fashion how the soil has been washed away from whole

valleys, so that they have been converted into deserts.

In northern China this disastrous process has gone on so long and has

proceeded so far that no complete remedy could be applied. There are

certain mountains in China from which the soil is gone so utterly that

only the slow action of the ages could again restore it; although of

course much could be done to prevent the still further eastward

extension of the Mongolian Desert if the Chinese Government would act

at once. The accompanying cuts from photographs show the inconceivable

desolation of the barren mountains in which certain of these rivers

rise--mountains, be it remembered, which formerly supported dense

forests of larches and firs, now unable to produce any wood, and

because of their condition a source of danger to the whole country. The

photographs also show the same rivers after they have passed through

the mountains, the beds having become broad and sandy because of the

deforestation of the mountains. One of the photographs shows a caravan

passing through a valley. Formerly, when the mountains were forested,

it was thickly peopled by prosperous peasants. Now the floods have

carried destruction all over the land and the valley is a stony desert.

Another photograph shows a mountain road covered with the stones and

rocks that are brought down in the rainy season from the mountains

which have already been deforested by human hands. Another shows a

pebbly river-bed in southern Manchuria where what was once a great

stream has dried up owing to the deforestation in the mountains. Only

some scrub wood is left, which will disappear within a half century.

Yet another shows the effect of one of the washouts, destroying an

arable mountain side, these washouts being due to the removal of all

vegetation; yet in this photograph the foreground shows that

reforestation is still a possibility in places.

What has thus happened in northern China, what has happened in Central

Asia, in Palestine, in North Africa, in parts of the Mediterranean

countries of Europe, will surely happen in our country if we do not

exercise that wise forethought which should be one of the chief marks

of any people calling itself civilized. Nothing should be permitted to

stand in the way of the preservation of the forests, and it is criminal

to permit individuals to purchase a little gain for themselves through

the destruction of forests when this destruction is fatal to the

well-being of the whole country in the future.