--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Harris, Frank S. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 5 published: 1910-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Harris, Frank S., "Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 5 (March 1910): 385–389.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera135unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera135unse start_page: 385 end_page: 389 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera135unse publication_year: 1910 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands IMPROVEMENT ERA. Vol. XIII. MARCH, 1910. No 5. Biological Conditions in Book of Mormon Lands. BY FRANK S. HARRIS, OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, AND AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The researches of archaeologists, ethnologists, and geologists in America have in late years contributed much in support of the Book of Mormon account of ancient American civilization. It shall be the purpose of this article to call attention to evidence in favor of that account from another field of scientific research. A record of this evidence is found in Bulletin 14-5 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, issued in April, 1909. This bulletin is entitled Vegetation Affected by Agriculture in Central America, and contains results of extensive investigations into the relations between the vegetation of that region to conditions that have existed there in past ages. In other words, it is a bionomic, or ecological study, presented by Mr Orator F. Cook, who is in charge of bionomic investigations of tropical and subtropical plants for the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Before taking up what Mr. Cook says, the Book of Mormon account will be briefly reviewed. Students of that book will 386 MPRO VEMENT ERA remember that Jared and his company left Asia at the time of the confounding of language, (Ether 1: 33) which according to Bible chronology was 2,311 B. C. After some years of travel they fi- nally landed in America, perhaps somewhere on the west coast of Mexico or Central America. From this point they spread and increased until their civilization occupied all of North America. In places the population was very dense, Central America being a center of great activity (Ether 10: 20-28). After many hundreds of years great contentions arose, and the people were finally all destroyed except Coriantumr who, in his wanderings, found the city of Zarahemla and the people of Muiek in South America some hundreds of years B. C. (Omni 1: 20-22). Thus the Jaredite civilization in America lasted about two thousand years closing soon after the arrival of the colonies from Jerusalem. It will be remembered that the people of Nephi left Jerusalem six hundred years B. C, while the followers of Mulek left eleven years later. These two colonies landed separately, but were united at Zarahemla during the reign of Mosiah. From there they grad- ually spread northward and, on reaching North America, they found that the previous occupants of the country (the Jaredites) had made the land desolate as far as its natural vegetation was concerned. Helaman describes in a concise manner the conditions found in the forty -sixth year of the reign of the Judges (Helaman 3). He says: And it to pass in the forty and sixth, yea, there was much came many dissensions, in the which there were an exceeding contention and great many who departed out of the land of Zarahemla, and went forth unto the land northward, to inherit the land; And they did travel to an exceeding great distance, insomuch that they came to large bodies of water, and many rivers; Yea, and e'~en they did spread forth into all parts of the land, into whatever parts it had not been rendered desolate, and without timber, because of the many inhabitants who had before inherited the land. And now no part of the land was desolate, save it were for timber, etc. ; but because of the greatness of the destruction of the people who had before inhabited the land, it was called desolate. And there being but little timber upon the face of the land, never- theless the people who went forth, became exceeding expert in the work BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS— BOOK OF MORMON LANDS. 387 ing of cement ; therefore they did build houses of cement, in the which they did dwell. And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south, to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east. And the people who were in the land northward, did dwell in tents, and in houses of cement, and they did suffer whatsoever tree should spring up upon the face of the land, that it should grow up, that in time they might have timber to build their houses, yea, their cities, and their temples, and their synagogues, and their sanctuaries, and all manner of their building . And it came to pass as timber was exceeding scarce in the land northward, they did send forth much by the way of shipping; And thus they did enable the people in the land northward, that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement. I desire to call especial attention to the fact that they found the native vegetation removed in this section, which undoubt- edly is Central America. They also began a process of reforest- ing, and, in the meantime, did much building with cement. Continuing from the period described by Helaman, the Book of Mormon tells us of this second civilization that flourished over the land for a number of centuries before the Lamanites finally reverted to a state of savagery. Keeping in mind these two civilizations, as described by the Book of Mormon, and their effects on the natural vegetation of the land, we shall review some of Mr. Cook's discoveries and conclusions. In his introduction, (page 7) he says: Savages who live by hunting and fishing or upon wild fruits, seeds, and honey may occupy a tropical region without seriously disturbing the previous balances of organic nature; but no careful observer of the agri- cultural aborigines of Central American countries can doubt that they have had vory definite influences upon their surroundings, or that influ- ences of the same kind have been exerted for long periods of time. He comments at some length on the vegetation in the region under discussion, considering the balance between certain types of plants and the succession of types under different conditions. He shows how "localities which contain remnants of ancient for- 388 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ests can be recognized by the presence of complete faunas of humus-inhabiting forest animals, such as the millipeds and centi- peds, and some of the lower orders of insects and arachnids." Prom these various relations he points out how Central America has gone through periods of forest removal and reforesta- tion. Commenting on the time covered by the processes he says (page 14): Of the periods of time required for such changes to be accomplished only rud? estimates are possible in the present state of our knowledge. A thousand years appears a small allowance for the complete reforesta- tion of a thoroughly denuded region, and for the spread of humus-inhabit- ing organisms over the reforested country. The survival of the humus- inhabiting animals on the ruin-covered hill is hardly to be considered pos- sible, for the pyramids and chambered buildings which covered the sum- mit, as well as large areas of the elaborately terraced approaches, appear tii have been faced all over with cement. Continuing his account of the ancient civilization and its e.Tects. Mr. Cook says (page 16): Many localities which are now occupied by apparently virgin forests are shown by archaeological remains to be regions of reforestation. Thus in the Senahu-Cahabon district of Alta Vera Pas relics of two or three very different types of primitive civilizations indicate that as many ancient populations have occupied successively the same areas which are now being chared anew by the coffee planters as though for the first time. It does not yet appear that any considerable region of forest has been explored in Central America without similar evidence that the pres- ent forests are not truly virgin growth. Even in extremely humid and insalubrious lowlands of the Atlantic slope of Co3ta Rica many relics of ancient civilizations have been uncovered in cleaning away the heavy tropical forests to make banana plantations. The same has recently been found to be true of the uninhabited coast regions of eastern Guatemala. It is not probable that more than a small proportion of the tribes which have inhabited t'ue Central American region were builders of stone structures or other permanent monuments by which ancient occupations could be proved. The likelihood that many tribes might pass without leaving any permanent evidence of their existence makes it more remark- able that all parts of Central America have in one prehistoric age or another been the scenes of primitive agricultural civilizations sufficiently advanced to work in stone, or at least to pile up terraces or earthworks BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS— BOOK OF MORMON LANDS. 3*9 of regular form. Some of the more barbarous tribes might occupy a region for thousands of years and yet leave no traces other than the fragments of broken pottery. These fragments are so abundant and so generally distributed in Central America that they appear as a regular coistituent of alluvial soils and surface deposits. . . . . Terracing of the land shows that agriculture was extensively prac- ticed in former times in regions now unoccupied. Two principal forms of prehistoric stone terraces, built evidently for agricultural purposes, may be recognized in the Central American region, in addition to the narrow terraces of earth described in a previous section. There are (1) narrow, high terraces to hold drainage water and prevent erosion in the narrow valleys or on steep slopes of mountains and (2) broad, low terraces appar- ently leveled to keep rain water from running off rather than to apply irrigation. He further states That the ancient occupants of the humid mountain regions of eastern Guatemala by agricultural civilizations were very prolonged and were repeated in several prehistoric ages as indicated by the very severe ero- sion which the region has suffered. It is not likely that such deeply dis- sected contours would have been formed if the country had not been kept in a denuded condition for long periods of time. Space will not permit of further quotation from either account, but sufficient has been said to show that the most careful biological and agricultural investigations are in strict harmony with the revealed word. Briefly The Book of Mormon tells of two dis- summarizing: sway in America. The first remaining tinct civilizations holding about two thousand years and the second continuing also for a long period. Their great agricultural activity is often referred to, and the clearing away of the forests by at least the first people is made very plain. The present flora and fauna of Central America, and the va- rious remains found there, clearly indicate to the scientist that the region was anciently occupied for long periods by different civilized peoples, also that these peoples practiced intensive systems of agriculture and removed the virgin forests, leaving the land in a de- nuded condition. Terraces, used to assist agricultural operations and prevent the erosion brought on by the forest denudation. are every-