Show the new england drought and its cause just now it looks as if the drought which will render the winter of or 1874 5 a memorable one in ne new w england annals is ove over r but it is not too late to consider its ae lesson on for six months the people of the eastern states stated have been complaining of want of rain hardly a mill in new E england angland but has been obliged to shorten its working hours or perhaps to shut down altogether hardly a city whose water supply has not been a source of anxiety for weeks threatening to fait utterly if relief did not come from the clouds hardly a farmer whose cattle have not been saved from suffering by an extra amount of labor and expense in providing them with their daily drink water has been an article of commerce in many of our town and the situation was wins growing worse day by day there have bee been severe in winters before but not often one of uch such length extent and far reaching in iti fluentes fluen ees ces j and we can blame biame only oui ourselves selves and alad our ancestors for it in old times a drought was the direct result of a limited rainfall but there has not been so much less than usual this year as to cause all this trouble troubie in the last cent century tiry new nev england was pretty well covered with trees and the rain that fell soaked into th the ground ran slowly down the valleys and aid finally reached the ocean now the land is stripped of trees the hills and the mountain region even where the sources of our river sare have been b eer bared to ahe the scorching rays rayo of the sun and nearly two thirds of all the rain that falls evaporates before it reaches the seaboard sea board this has dried up all the streams into brooks the brooks I 1 into nto mere rivulets with dusty bottoms for months this has ruined many olour trout brooks this too by caulli causing ng the sudden departure of the snows in spring causes many destructive freshets fresh ets in the tho thick maine blaine woods wood the gradual melting of the snow know lasts for weeks and keeps the rivers at a high pitch while the streams whose headwaters flow from a country stripped of trees rise and fall with the suld stid suddenness denness of mountain brooks after a shower thye the reckless improvidence due to a cupidity and carelessness which has made so much of our territory a hideous expanse of ragged rocky worthless fields is the cause of our drou droughts ghO improvidence must bear the blame 1 not boston |