In article
,
Bill wrote:

In article ,
"J. Clarke" wrote:

Way Back Jack wrote:
TV documentaries and travelogues reveal a lot of lush "green" in
those
countrysides but a relative scarcity of trees. Is it climate? Too
windy in Ireland? Sheep and/or other livestock?

Loreena Mckennitt and some unknown 18th century songwriter pretty much
say it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnrNYtOsbEg

"O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where shall we shelter, where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground."

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore."

ca 1745.

--

Here in the USA the rate of deforesting was something 17 acres a day to
turn into charcoal which ran one of our iron works for one day. Don't
ask for a site as it is most likely wrong.

If goggle is our friend.

http://books.google.com/books?id=bDr...=PA316&dq=defo
resting+charcoal+pennsylvania&source=web&ots=_-OqLaZQcj&sig=g9oRdPfW-1Jpm
dUsLdw6ggYQWmk&hl=en

or

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3tcazw

Bill

I is said that when the Europeans arrived to North America, a squirrel
could have gone from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River,
without putting a foot on the ground.
--

Billy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTf...ef=patrick.net
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0aEo...eature=related