| OCR Text |
Show Sahara Made Waste by Destruction of Forests Everybody knows that trees, apart from their direct economic value, exert a beneficial Influence affecting climate, agriculture, and even the very existence of man. Tills ' can be more clearly demonstrated demon-strated in Africa where vast areas are drying up and becoming depopulated depop-ulated as the direct result of forest for-est destruction. Recent scientific research has shown that the Sahara has not always been desert Remains Re-mains of troes have been found on the banks of vanished rivers and on the shores of dried up lakes. At the time of Mohammed it Is estimated . that about 1,000,000 Arabs "invaded parts that are now desert. They cut the forests to make their farms, moving on to repeat the same process of destruction destruc-tion as soon as they had reaped their crops. They brought with them vast herds of goats. It is probable that each Arab possessed about 100 goats. Now 100,000,000 j goats following in the train of 1,000,000 nomadic farmers would not allow of much tree growth, for the goat Is the bete nolr of the forest, . To the north of the Gold coast, In a territory under the French sphere of Influence, vast areas are drying up and becoming depopulated depopulat-ed as the direct result of forest destruction. de-struction. In certain tribes the chiefs have forbidden marriage and their women refuse to bear children, chil-dren, because they see the end of the forest iu sight and they will not raise sons and daughters to starvation. |
