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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1885)
THE WEST SHORE. 339 Congress a lack of sufliciont interest iu this country U, take up the subject in earnest, wont to England and there enlisted in the enterprise several prominent eapu tahstewho were ready to enmmnte an nsrccmcnt to wiwtrooi me railway, when the negotiations wore sud denly suspended by complications that arose in Mexico. While tllflfifl WArA tininn o,,Kf.,i :).. , i .b ii;iDi.nViuiuy adjusted uie pro moters of the Nicaragua Canal came before this Govern, meut with a treaty preseuted by the Executive looking to the construction of the canal by the Government itself. Interested in this scheme were a number of high official of the Government, who gave it all thoir influence. The Senate failed to ratify the treaty, but tlio disous. sionB in the'Senate and in the publio press gave evidence of such an intense interest on the part of the pooplo, not so much in the Nicaragua Canal as in the gonoral sub ject of an Isthmian crossing, that it became very evident that this country must be interested commercially, flnan. eially and politically in any intor-oooanio crossing of whatever kind and whorevor located. With this oonvic tion the promoters of the ship railway, comprising some seventy or eighty capitalists and publio-spiritod citizens of the United States, intend to ask Congress at its next session to give the stockholders of the Ship Railway Company a guarantee for fifteen years that they shall receive dividends of 5 por cent on $30,000,000, with the condition that the guaranty shall not attach until aftor the railway is completed and in operation, and that any sum paid undor the guaranty shall bo ropaid to the United States. The consideration which the company proposes to give for this guaranty is a reduction of 25 per oeni upon the tolls on all American ooastwise com meroe carried ovor the ship railway for thirty years. The Mexican Government agrees to guarantee 5 por cent per annum upon $25,000,000 on the same conditions, and agrees to give the company the right to obtain the guar anty asked of the United States from it or auy other nation, or nations, and to give such guaranteeing nation a representation in the board of directors fully equal to that which Moxioo reserves. It can scarcely bo doubted that suoh a proposition can fail of acceptance by our Government If we can shorten the voyage 8,000 miles and the time one-half, lesson the cost of insurance ami keep the grain out of jta long sojourn in the tropics, a new era of pros perity iwill dawn at the Golden Gate and along the Columbia and Willamette Our commercial organiza tions Siould memorialize Congress on the subject, and do it Wore finid action is taken instead of afterwards, as mer occasion. on nr the malum Ions ton Maubijl Dr. Crudelli, of Rome, gives Rowing' directions for proving remedy for which mar be worth trying, as it Is said to linve proved efficacious when quinine has given no rein: cut up a lonioii. peel and palp, in thin shoes, and boil it in a pint and a half of water until it is reduced Ut half a pint. Strain through a linen cloth, squeezing the ri" ' the boiled leuibn, and set it aside until cold. I he culire liquid is taken fasting. FORESTS AND PRAIRIE, transition from the heavy forests of the eastern and central portions of Uie Atlantic region to tho li'ouluae pluiu is gradual The uimngt) tHiuurs wikliiu tlm prairie region. Here is the strip of debatable ground where a continuous struggle between tho forest and tho plain tak(a place. There is here suilluient precipitation of moisture to cause, under normal conditions, a growth of open forests, but so nicely balanced is tho struggle that any interference quickly turns tho scale. Trees planted within this prairie liolt thrive if protected from fire and the encroachment of the tough prairio sod, and so extend the forest lino westward; if the forest which fringes tho eastern edgo of the prairie is destroyed, it does not soon regain possession of the soil, and the prairie is gradually pushed eastward. Other causes, however, than insnflleient rainfall and a nicely balanced struggle between the forest and the plain have prevented the general growth of trees in the prairie region cant of tho ninety-flftli meridian. The rainfall in this region is suflloionl to insure tho growth of a very heavy forest The rain falling u)miu the prairies of Minnesota, Wisconsin, lows, Illinois and Missouri equals in amount that enjoyed by the Michigan enin aula, and tho whole region south of Lakes Erie and On. turio, while prairies exist within the region of the heavi est forest growth. It is not want of sullioinnt heat or of suflloiont or equally distributed moisture which has checked the general spread of forest over these prairies. The soil of which the prairies are oonixntedf as is shown by the fact that trees planted ujmhi thein will grow with vigor and rapidity, is not unsuited to tree growth. It is not perhaps improlmblo that tho forests of tho Atlantic region once extended continuously as far wet as the ninety-fifth meridian, although oircuinstautial evidence of such a theory doe not exist It is, however, fair to assume that forests once existed iu a region adapted by climate, rainfall and soil to produce forests, and that their absence under such conditions must !o traced to accidental causes. It is not dillicult to understand that forests once destroyed over such a vast area could imt easily regain jsstsossion of Uie soil protected by an iin ponctrahlo covering of sod and subjected to the annual burnings which have occurred down to the present time; while the force of the wind, unchecked by any forest bar rier, over such an area would, even without tho aid of fires, havo made tho spread of trees slow and dillicult. The assumption that these eastern piairies may have once loeu covered with forests is strengthened by the fact thnt since they have been devoted to agriculture, ami the annual burnings have boon stopisal, trees which were formerly confined to the river bottoms have gradually crept to the uplands. The eastern t ortious of the prairies are fust losing their treeless diameter, and the forest protected from fire is gradually gaining iu every din e, tion; regions which fifty years ago were treeless outside the river bottoms now ooutaiu forests covering 10 or even 20 per cent of their area, I'lieso eastern, well-watered prairies must not, how ever, be ooufouiided with their dry wtmUtrn rim adjoining the plains, the debatable ground between forest aioi plain, or with the plains themselves. There is no grad nal. constant spread of forest growth nism the Plains. They sre treeless, on account of insulllcient moisture to develop forest grow tli ; and while trees msy, perhaps, if planted, survive a few years beyond the western limiu i,l the prairie, the permanent establishment of forests there does not sein practicable. I'rojvuur tiuryi-nt in Untied tUtte$ Census oh i'vrtttry.