A new history of the United StatesThe greater republic, embracing the growth and achievements of our country from the earliest days of discovery and settlement to the present eventful year .. . jjicture is one which reveals so much as to the nature andmeaning of Northwestern jirogress. CLEARING AWAY THE FORESTS AND ITS EFFECTS. Not a little has been written regarding the rapid destruction of the vastwhite-pine forests with which nature has covered large districts of Michigan,Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It is true that this denudation has progressed at arate with which nothing of a like character
A new history of the United StatesThe greater republic, embracing the growth and achievements of our country from the earliest days of discovery and settlement to the present eventful year .. . jjicture is one which reveals so much as to the nature andmeaning of Northwestern jirogress. CLEARING AWAY THE FORESTS AND ITS EFFECTS. Not a little has been written regarding the rapid destruction of the vastwhite-pine forests with which nature has covered large districts of Michigan,Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It is true that this denudation has progressed at arate with which nothing of a like character in the history of the world is com-parable. It is also true, doubtless, that the clearing away of dense forest areashas been attended with some inconvenient climatic results, and particularly withsome objectionable effects upon the even distribution of rainfiill and the regu-larity of the flow of rivers. But most persons who have been alarmed at theraj^idity of forest destruction in the white-j^ine belt have wholly overlooked thegreat compensating facts. It happens that the white-pine region is not espe-cially fertile, and that for some time to come it is not likely to acquire a pros-. THE CATHEDRAL SilHES, COLORADO. 516 ADMINISTRATION OF CLEVELAND. perous agriculture. But adjacent to it and beyond it there was a vast region ofcountry which, though utterly treeless, w^as enctewed with a marvelous richnessof soil and with a climate fitted for all the staple productions of the temperatezone. This region embraced parts of Illinois, almost the whole of Iowa, south-ern Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, and parts ofMontana—a region of imperial extent. Now, it happens that for every acre?of pine land that has been denuded in IMichigan, northern Wisconsin, andnorthern Minnesota there are somewhere in the great treeless region further«outh and west two or three new farm-houses. The railroads, pushing aheadof settlement out into the open prairie, have carried t
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