r
286
THE WEST SHORE.
November, 1883
THE NORTHERN PACII'IC AND TREE
TLANTING.
So much ha been heard of the Northern Pa
cific during the last few months that some com
ment upon one of its operations which is out of
the usual class mny he of interest. A handbill
before us, which recipients are requested to
"please post in a conspicuous place," gives details
of the company's plans "to encourage the plant
ing of forest trees in groves, shelter belts or live
windbreaks." "To settlers and land-owners trib
utary to its lines and within the generally recog
nized treeless region " the company offer as in.
duccments free transportation of forest trees not
over two years old nnd tree seeds and cuttings to
all prairie stations ; also free carriage on improved
vnrielies of small fruits, settlers being cautioned
against ordering apple trees from east or south of
M inncsota, as such trees generally fail. The next
inducement is in the form of trip-passes for set
tlers accomplishing the best results. Although
the single-trip passes offered are not intrinsically
valuable enough to incite much effort, the com
petitors will te working for themselves; that is
the most substantial reward, and the railroad takes
the part of encouragement and education. Its
other inducement is the gratuitous distribution of
printed practical information about tree planting,
and "the superintendent of tree plantations will,
at such times as his active duties will permit, visit
all localities on the lines of the Northern Pacific
railroad where the people manifest an interest in
this work, and will aid them by his counsel and
practical exicrience, Imparting such information
orally in a conversational way, or in lectures, as
will enable them to avoid the mistakes so com
monly mule, and also endeavor to show the way
to the best results with the least delay and the
smallest and most judicious expenditure of time
and money."
The lumlier trade direct .between Puget sound
and adjacent territory and Australia has become
Important. The point, however, occurs whether
It is not desirable to adopt measures for the pres
crvation of our forest timber. The Pacific coast
is being rapidly denuded of timber, and nothing
is done to conqiensate for the loss by planting new
forests. Climatic changes of very serious char
acter may be anticipated from the wholesale
destruction of growing timber. Millions of dol
lars worth of valuable timber are annually de
slroycd by fire on the Pacific coast. It should be
somebody's business to prevent this waste of n.
tlonal property. Congress would do well to con
sider this matter at its next session.
The vanguard of American civilisation, moving
westward, has always borne the axe, and "Chop!
chopl has been the American motto. The Sage
of Chappaqua set up a wayside direction, not yet
obliterated, sending the young man west, and one
of the things he "knew about farming" was to
go out and chop down a tree. Any man oj fair
health can do that in an hour or so ; but it uccu
pics the silent force of natuie a goodly number
of years to set the tree up again. Trre and savage
held the soil, and extermination has been levied
gainst both now it is time the axe rested and
trees were allowed to stand until substantial rea
tons are found lor cutting them. The forest
primeval must have defender or live only in
Acadia and hexameter. The murmuring pines
and the hemlocks of the Adirondack region are
already largely destroyed by bark-cutters and
charcoal-burners j the retention of the duty on
wood (said to be "protective" of something),
the increase of exports of " wood and manufac
tures of," and the penetration of the remotest
wood wilds by the destroying' railroad, work all
together.
The census forestry charts are most suggestive.
It is not merely the exhaustion of wood that we
have to contemplate, but, as man can never con
quer nature, the penalty follows in drouth and
tornado, alternated by flood. The last great out
break of the Ohio was generally ascribed to denu
dation of its upper banks, although the conclu
sion was met by reference to a great flood long
before that denudation ; still, that there is a close
connection between baring the soil and the ex
cesses of too little and too much water is not
doubtful. The tornado, which has become so
persistent a visitor that special insurance against
it has been discussed, adds its lesson, and the
most valuable part of the lesson is that prevention
is better than insurance. The St. Paul Pioneer
Press regards windstorms as preventable. It
argues that they are formed in the unbroken
prairie stretches of the far west, and cites the
familiar little eddies that are seen catching up dirt
at a street corner. Contact with adjacent walls
breaks up such eddies, which might develop
resistless energy if unimpeded; the rotary move
ment which is only like this in its beginning on
Nebraska or Dakota plains has force enough to
devasiage villages after it has traveled hundreds
of miles. The ordinary course of settlement will
do much toward reducing the dangerous level of
the plains by interposing buildings, growing crops
and trees. Hut the slow course of settlement of
the country should not be awaited tree-planting
should be systematically pursued. Lines of trees
regularly disposed, at intervals of a quarter-mile
to a half-mile, would be the most effective imped
iments to the development of the cyclone, and
the prevalence of growing timber is also the best
protection against the prolonged heating of one
spot, which heating is itself the provocative of
cyclonic currents.
This is the argument. It is certainly most reas
onable, and the phrase "windbreaks" in the rail-
road company's poster is suggestive. Tornadoes.
like fires, are governable in their time and place
origin by prevention ; so are drouth and floods,
in some degree, by conforming to natural laws.
Tree felling must be exchanged for tree saving and
tree planting. orestry is beginning to lie studied.
and not too soon. In some parts of New England
village improvement societies have been doing
good work, as shown by an item, several years
old now, that "the Williamstown Village Im
provement Society finished its tree planting last
week, and there is now a continuous row of over
450 elms for three miles from the village to the
North Adams line." It is pleasant to find the
newly completed Northern Pacific taking part in
the reform with such prompt and wise fore
thought. Bradsh ttCt.
the sea, offering deep water, bold shores, safe
harborage and busy ports to the ships of all the
world. A considerable portion of the local
freighting is now, and probably always will be
done in vessels navigating the sound as part of
routes which take them to other states and for
eign countries. Now, does the law say that home
keeping craft competing with them in the same
waters, must do so under an onerous excess of
liability ? I think not. Law abhors inequality.
Martiime law especially reaches out after uni
formity. Puget sound is similarly related to the
Pacific as Long Island sound is to the Atlantic.
To the latter has been extended by the courts
the same rule that obtains on the ocean. From
the cases cited in argument and (he reason of the
matter, I gather this principle, that navigation of
waters, which, whether from their vastness and
depth or from their commodiousness and free
connection with the great sea, are traversed in the
ordinary course of traffic by' vessels such as sail
the ocean, is not inland navigation within the true
sense of the statute."
Mrs. A. S. Lovejoy, whose enterprise in oper
ating fruit canneries in Oregon City and Portland
has done much for the fruit interests of this state,
has established a factory in East Portland for the
canning of fruit and vegetables. Next season
too men will be employed. The new cannery at
Walla Walla has made a large pack this season
and will no doubt demonstrate the fact that we
can produce such goods equal to the best im
ported from California or the east.
Near Mount Adams, in Washington territory,
is a cave floored with ice. Instead of running
laterally into the side of a mountain the entrance
is a perpendicular shaft fifteen feet in diameter
and the same in depth. The change of temper
ature upon entering the orifice is like dropping
from a hot kitchen into a refrigerator. The sun
shines upon a mound of snow in the opening
without producing any effect. Inside the cave
one can walk seventy-five feet in any direction
upon a pavement of solid ice, the ceiling above
being studded with the most beautiful stalactites.
The Puget Iron Works were incorporated re
cently at Seattle. The company proposes to
engage in the manufacture of engines and ma
chinery. The best photos, all styles and siws, are taken
by Abel!. Gallery west side of First street, be
tween Morrison and Yamhill.
To obtain the most artistic views of scenery in
the Pacific Northwest, go to Davidson, southwest
corner First and Yamhill. He has the only com
plete assortment in this state.
It has been decided by Judge Greene, of Seattle,
that navigation on Puget sound is not " inland
navigation" in the sense of the U. S. statute
limiting the liability of ship owners. The decis
ion says 1 " Tuget sound lies directly open to
I '
Print Your Own Cards1
I,, hell.
JKnvolopM
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. for oiroulars, so. w w '. ; old.
Z: uro, nw i,V";lr;eioBs.
2 .iRintxi for Catalogue of """"'
fyP., Car; . 4c, to the facto'
Kf UMil a iu.i mi""" -
Mention the wkst Shokk.
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the Pacific Coast. Bond tmnwot sU rap for l
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measurement. Buy your shoe direct from
save retailor's heavy profit Let me hear fro"
JAMB MEANS. 41 Lincoln St.. U.. miu
Pleose muntion tho Wkht hobk.