Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/149

 From Youth to Age as an American. 131 It may be worth while here to ask the causes of this phe- nomenon. In the writer's view, at the beginning of the con- test between the species of trees, the hundreds of young firs begin the contest by drinking the waters of tree-life as they fall— the myriads of sponge-like rootlets of the young firs absorbing the rainfall before it reaches the oak roots in suffi- cient quantity to promote growth; the weaker firs perish as growth progresses, and by the time the fir reaches the height of the oak, the many are robbing the one, or few, oaks of the air and light as well as the rain from heaven. The end of growth of the oak has come, and in some cases complete death, to which end the appropriation of air and light at the last by the conifers seems most effective. In my view, the general level of life-sustaining moisture in the cultivated portions of Western Oregon has lowered, in the sixty years of my observations, in many places not less than two feet; in some places, ten. The ditching to drain road- beds, both common and rail, and drains for field crops and cultivated fruits and hops, and even ornamental trees and plants, have all tended to absorb the life-giving surface mois- ture. Added to the loss by natural laws, is the artificial loss of moisture by the curing of hay, drying of grain crops, prunes and other fruits, and hops.* Long-keeping apples shipped to New York, London and other markets carry 80 per cent of their weight in water. Is it worth while to inquire the effect of increasing or diminishing the flow of streams from a well-cultivated country, when we know in reason that every process of removal or even breakage of the tissues of plant life means the severance of minute channels for the passage of water we call sap from the ground, as a sponge, into the plants growing upon its surface as pumps, and the general effect is that the Willamette Valley has largely ceased to be the home of the crane, curlew, gray plover, and even the snipe, as well as the beaver, muskrat and wild duck. These damp-land and water fowls and animals, which once found — ^ Pf. '-R ''Many observers believe the evaporation of hay and grain crops has modified the summer climate, giving more cloudy days.