, 1874-02-04
To the Editor of the "St, CrOix Avis"
Sir!

SIr!
Having noticed in your esteemed paper the repro
duction Of an article on the Importance Of trees and
forests with regard to the atmospheric moisture IN
general by Professor Hough in the Uuited States,
| bee leave through your columns to make some re-
marks on the same subject with reference to this IS
land especially and to the manner IN which the adj
vantages Of q rational treatment of this most lmpor'
tant question can b. made applicable TO our own
agriculture,
1t may be considered as sufficiently proved by every
DAYS experience, that trees retain the moisture COL
lected beneath taem TO a much greater extent than an
open ground on account Of their shade preventing
evaporation and because their roots make the soil
porous like a sponge so as to enable it to hold a much
larger quantity of water.
Starring from this unquestionab)e factit is evident
j. that a bill covered with trees will act as a wa
ter-reservojr TO the lower parts of the land allow
inc the whole amount of rain that falls on 1t by
degrees to sink down along its sides to the
ground below, which in this way will be con-
stantly imbibed with moisture and surrounded
by the cool and moist air emanating from the
trees, and
q that brooks, springs and wells, whiehdariye their
water from underground collections formed in
that way are dependent for their existence on
such naturai reservoirs.
The reason therefore, why most springs and brooks
gradually are drying up in this island Is not so much
to be ascribed to want Of rain as to the imprudent &C
ton Of man in destroying the sources OF their eXis-
tence.
No amount of rain will be sufficient for feeding
brooks and springs all the year ronnd if the natural
reservoirs, where the water Is stored by Nature Tor
gradual use, are MOI allowed to remain.
As a proof of this fact, that trees are unav0ldabIy
necessary for the existence OF running water, | would
lust mention that whilst all other brooks in the island,
even the largest of them, dried up during last year
from want of trees to feed and shade them, the three
small brooks running down to Hams Bluff, to Hams
Bay passing Caledonia and to Sprathall through Gre
quis continued running the whole time, merely be-
cause through the wise policy of the proprietor the
uncultivated hills around them have not been allowed
10 be cleared Of trees in the same needless way as in
most other places in the island.
1t might be objected, that the land cannot be allow
ed to remain uncultivated for the sake of having run
ming water. But if we consider, that out of the
$1,000 acres that form the total area of this island,
only 1900 or are cultivated it is evident, that there
is room enough left for having trees growing without
interfering with the cultivation OF cane.
This large amount of uncultivated land in st. Croix
however as is generally known is very far from being
employed in the way indicated above.
Nearly the whole of it, thousands of acres, are COW
cred with useless shrubs and are not worth a dollar a
year to their proprietors, who content themselves by
insisting upon calling this their pasture"
Now this so-cslled pasture as a rule is a most mis-
cradle affair as generally t is destitute IOf the most
essential thing in a pasture viz grass.
Small dry brown shrubs and often not even that
are the only inducements offered by this land to the
poor cattle, who are expected to make a living on it,
but who in most cases fail to realize this most san
gulne expectation even by being allowed several acres
of land per head.
And yet by a more sagacious management most of
this wretched and unproductive land may be turned
into real good pasture and at the same time benefit