The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-11-08
Forests and Freshets.

!. tie curreur meeting 10 Portland Of the
American Association. DR.. Hough. of Albany.
read q uauer on the rainfall and It's relations 20
forests. lie had carefully analysed the returns
Of the rain gauge for : term amounting 20 2,000
wears. and from these BE had ATTEMPTED 70 deduce
a law Of secular changes in the fall OF water.
But the result cid not Justify It. They show
marked variations from year 70 year, and reveal
irregularities ~ many localities. and they also
indicate great tendency TO drought for years to
getheT. DR.. HoUgb strongly reintorces the dos
trine Of the relation Of forests 70 the flooding
Of streams, and il 50 tar bears cut the argument
OF the State Commissioner in reference 10 the
preservation Of the Adirondack woods. In :
cleared country the water flows quickly away TO
the streams these are a. once az high-water
mark, and then 6 season follows when water Is
not 70 be found. The actual effect Of the evapo-
ration Of rain drops on the leaves and the chem
zeal action which goes on in the plant Is obvious
in the humidity and temperature OF the atmos-
pierre where trees exist. One can observe this in
. casual glance at open fields, the sunburnt look
Of one which is t~reeless Is IN contrast with the
fresh and vernal appearance of the Enclosure IN
which clumps Of trees are found. Houses shaded
by trees are damper than those not 50 protected.
In the dryesr season, one who walks II the
country viii notice a sensible change in passing
from a ~treeless waste 10 the vicinity Of forest or
into the forest itself.
The necessity Of Misrepresentation for economic
uses cannot be oyerrdted. The supply OF lumber
is rapidly failing. In Europe the forests are
regulated by law, and crops of trees are harvested
in rotation and upon a definite and pre-arranged
system. France has altogether l3 ,226 square
miles OF protected forest. The code by which
they are governed dates from the time of Colbert,
who was a master hand in regulation and state
interference. He showed as great wisdom IN this
code as in any other branch of his system of ad-
ministration. By the Colbert Code, " oaks were
not TO be felled till ripe, that is, able TO prosper
another thirty years" The French have carried
this system to Algeria, and have already added
several rainy days TO July and August. In this
country, the French system is impossible. The
state owns no forests, and the work of preserva-
ton and careful outstanding must proceed from
the people. One generation will plant for an
other, and the small sapling OF to-day will be a
forest monarch fifty or a hundred years hence.
Nc crop would be more valuable no investment
more certain. As DR.. Hough says :" 1t must
come to be understood that a tree or a forest
planted is an investment Of capital, increasing
annually in value as it grows-like money at IN
terest-and worth any time what it has cost, in
Guiding the expense Of planting, and the interest
which this money would have earned at the given
date" Waste spots should be planted and the
increased value of farms, whose roadsIdes are
lined with trees, should be made apparent to all.
There ls wealth, and health, and comfort in this
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES paper.