plantations, that demanded tens of years for their growth, are
uprooted; houses, bridges, dams are washed away; railroad tracks torn
up; cattle, not infrequently human beings also, are drowned; soil
improvements are carried off; crops ruined. Vast tracts, exposed to
frequent inundations, are cultivated but slightly, lest the loss be
double.

On the other hand, unskilful corrections of the channels of large rivers
and streams,--undertaken in one-sided interests, to which the State ever
yields readily in the service of "trade and transportation"--increase
the dangers of freshets. Extensive cutting down of forests, especially
on highlands and for private profit, adds more grist to the flood mill.
The marked deterioration of the climate and decreased productivity of
the soil, noticeable in the provinces of Prussia, Pomerania, the
Steuermark, Italy, France, Spain, etc., is imputed to this vandalic
devastation of the woods, done in the interest of private parties.

Frequent freshets are the consequence of the dismantling of mountain
woodlands. The inundations of the Rhine, the Oder and the Vistula are
ascribed mainly to the devastation of the woods in Switzerland, Galicia
and Poland; and likewise in Italy with regard to the Po. Due to the
baring of the Carnian Alps, the climate of Triest and Venice has
materially deteriorated. Madeira, a large part of Spain, vast and once
luxurious fields of Asia Minor have in a great measure forfeited their
fertility through the same causes.

It goes without saying that Socialist society will not be able to
accomplish all these great tasks out-of-hand. But it can and will
undertake them, with all possible promptness and with all the powers at
its command, seeing that its sole mission is to solve problems of
civilization and to tolerate no hindrance. Thus it will in the course of
time solve problems and accomplish feats that modern society can give no
thought to, and the very thought of which gives it the vertigo.

The cultivation of the soil will, accordingly, be mightily improved in
Socialist society, through these and similar measures. But other
considerations, looking to the proper exploitation of the soil, are
added to these. To-day, many square miles are planted with potatoes,
which are to be applied mainly to the distilling of brandy, an article
consumed almost exclusively by the poor classes of the population.
Liquor is the only stimulant and "care-dispeller" that they are able to