Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-09-18
Forests and FreSbetS.

At the current meeting in Portland of
the American Association, DR.. Hough,
of Albany, read paper on the rainfall
and its relation to forests. He had
carefully analysed the returns of the
rain-gauge for a term amounting to
1000 years, and from these he had at
tempted to deduce law of secular
changes in the fall of water But the
returns did not justify it. They show
marked variations from year to year,
and reveal great irregularities at many
localities, and they also indicate great
tendency to droughtfor years altogether.
DR.. Hough strongly reinforces the doc
trine of the relation of forets to the
flooding of streams, and in so far bears
out the argument of the State Commits
sioners in reference to the preservation
of the Adirondack woods. In cleared
country the water flows quickly away to
the streams these are at once at high
water mark, and then a season follows
when water is not to be found The
actual effect of the evaporation of rain
drops on the leaves, and the chemical
action which goes on in the plant is
obvious in the humidity and tempera-
ture of the atmosphere where trees ex-
ist. One can observe this in a casual
glance at open fields-the sunburnt look
of one which is treeless is in contrast
with the fresh and vernal appearance of
the inclosure in which clumps of trees
are found. Houses shaded by trees are
damper than those not so protected.
In the driest season, one who walks in
the country will notice sensible change
In passing from treeless waste to the
vicinity of forest or into the forest it.
self. The necessity of misrepresentation
for economic uses cannot be overrated.
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 definate and pre-
arranged system. France has altogether
Is, 226 square miles of protected forest.
The code by which they are governed
dates from the time of Colbert, who was
master-hand in regulation and State
interference. He showed as great wis
dom in this code as in any other branch
of his system of administration. BY the
Colbert code, ''oaks were not to be
felled till ripe, that is, able to prosper
another thirty years. The French
have carried their system to Algeria,
and have already added several rainy
days to July and August. In this
country, the French system is impossi-
BILE. The STATE owns no forests, and
the work of preservation and careful
outstanding must proceed from the
people. One generation will plant fer
another, and the small sapling of to-day
will be forest monarch fifty or hun.
dred years hence. No crop would be
more valuable no investment more Ger.
tain. AS DR.. Hough says: cit must
come to be understood that tree or a
forest planted is an investment of CAPT
tai, increasing annually in value as il
grows--like money at interest-an6
worth at 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 spot:
should be planted, and the increased
value of farms, whose roadsides art
lined with trees, should be apparent tx
all. There is wealth, and health anC
comfort in the suggestion.-Ne,c Yorl
Commercial advertiser.