Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-02-17

Preserving and PLANTING Timber.

1t is due principally to the persis-
tent efforts of our Horticultural Socie-
ties that the Importance of preserving
our forests has been prominent before
the public. 1t is now generally allow
ed by meteorologists that forests do
exercise o very important influence,
not only upon the weather, but also,
upon the water supply of our rivers;
for. while the annual evaporati on
from the earth and ocean is a fixed
quantity, its deposition varies with
the changed locality upon which it
falls. If the land whereon it falls be
covered with forests or long grasses, it
is held, penetrates the soil, feeds
springs, or Is given back slowly. If,
on the other hand, it falls on bare or
partially denuded surface it, runs
quickly away, often producing terrible
freshets, such as Of late years the
country has been visited with.
The late lamented Commodore
Maury in his address before the Ma
tional Agricultural Congress at st.
Louis, Mo-, in 1872, on "Science and
its Application to Agriculture" thus
condenses the whole subject in nut
shell: "Every movement that takes
place in the atmosphere, from the
zephyr to the tornado, is traceable to
the sun. He it is that pumps up from
the sea the water for your mighty
Mississippi River, transports it thrO'
the air, and showers it down upon
your glad hills and smiling valleys.
The quantity of heat annually dis
pensed by him to the earth is constant.
The dimensions of the ocean are per-
| ment. The volume of water annually
taken up from 1t as vapor and let
down again as rain, hail, snow and
dew, is also contant. But the quanti-
ty Of it that is dispensed to you year
by year, is variable"
At the International Congress re-
Gently held at Vienna, to take into
consideration the best means for the
preservation Of forests, representatives
being present from the United States,
Germany, France, Belgium, Italy,
Holland and Hungary, 1t was reiter-
ated that many of the large rivers of
Europe were diminishing their volume
of water. 1t was demonstrated that
the cutting down of forests had per-
| manently lowered the Elbe to a great
degree within the last fifty years.
That it had rendered drouth periodical
in Hungary, that it had reduced the
products of Greece to an incalculable
extent, and that it had seriously af-
fected the fertility Of Sicily and Sar-
DINA. Various streams, as the Rhine
and Oder, were cited as showing the
resultant effects on streams from the
denudation Of forests. In Palestine,
where the destruction of forests had
been excessive, the effects were espe-
cially noticeable in the drying up of
springs, etc.
On the other hand, and it is really
of value to us of the West, facts were
presented showing that the planting
Of forests in Austria and Italy had pro-
duced beneficial effects in inducing
rain and consequent fertility, and now
that the planting of forests, as means
| of producing more equal rainfall,
and of modifying the climate Of
country, is Endorsed by the conclave
Of savants Of Europe and America, we
| suppose that those who have cOmbated
the idea heretofore will now fall into
line. and insist that "they always told
| you sO.' HHH Ran@ |0g1
The demand for Seeding forest trees
for planting has been steadily increas-
/ ing for the last three years. The in
habitants of Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas
and Nebraska are especially realizing
the benefits of forest planting, though
originally forced into it by the search
| ty Of timber for economical purposes.
Whea this planting shall have be-
come general throughout the new
States of the Far West, all will learn,
as many OF us have known for years,
that the planting or conservation of
one-fitth to quarter OF the area of q
country with timber will render the
cultivation Of many plants profitable
that are now exotic and impossible.
1t will 80 modify our climate that we
shall no longer be subject to the terri
BILE storms that now periodically, and
with increasing violence, deyastate
the West.
A single tree planted exerts its own
distinct infience in modifying cli-
mate or protecting crops. 1t Is small
it is true, but, nevertheless, distinct.
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