, 1875-03-06

should be permitted, as it has been in the
United States, the time will not be very
distant when the most valuable forests
will have been destroyed and posterity
may inherit a country stripped OF its wood
and cursed with a ruined climate. The
papers which have appeared in The Sugar
Cine nave been distributed by the pomin-
ion Government among the various Pro-
vincial Governments.
The subject of the destruction of the
forests in America is thus referred to by Mr..
Proctor, in the December number of the
Contemporary Reriev:-
1.-The rapid consumption of coal is but
a single instance of wasteful expenditure
of the stores which during countless ages
have been gathered together seemingly for
the use of man. In this country (America,)
| need not dwell upon the fact that, IN
many other ways, man is consuming, if not
wasting, supplies of earth-wealth which
cannot be replaced. 1t is not merely
what is found within the earth, but
the store of wealth which clothes the
earth's surface, which is thus being
exhausted. Your mighty forests seem
capable of supplying all the timber that
the whole race of man could need for
ages yet a very moderate computation
OF the rate at which they are being cut
down, and will presumably continue to
be, by a population increasing rapidly
in numbers and in the destructive capa-
bilities which characterize modern civili-
z~ation, would show that this country will
be deuuded of its forest wealth in about
the same period which we in England
have calculated as probably limiting the
effective duration of four stores Of COAL.
The influence of forest on climate has
engaged the attention of the British AS
ISOLATION, and a Committee has been
appointed to investigate the subject. The
report will be looked for with consider
able interest.
Mr.. J, F. Wilkey, of Exeter, writes -
"The collection of facts and opinions
goes far to establish the theory as a rule.
| am Inclined to think that the silent
collection of electricity by the trees from
the atmosphere, and thus conveying it
to the ground, has much to do with the
growth of vegetation independently of
moisture. We may water the plants in
our gardens, in very dry weather, and
keep them alive, but a humid air with
a suItry, electrical state of the atmosphere,
even without rain, seems to produce more
fertilizing effects. l remember reading
many years ago of an experiment made,
I think by a Scotchman, which illustrates
this principle. A paraIIeIogram of ground
was bounded by a furrow, ploughed two
or three inches in depth, and in it q
stout iron wire was laid. Two dry poles,
fourteen or fifteen feet in height, were
planted along the axis of the paralleloglam,
and another iron wire was stretched over
the two poles and its ends were led down
to the ground and secured respectively
to the centres of the wires occupying the
burrows at the ends of the parallelogram.
The wire in the burrows was secured by
stout, wooden crooks and covered by the
soil. This was tried in a field prepared
for the growth of barley, and the result
was said to be that the crop within the
enclosure was about double the quantity
of the rest of the field. I can suppose
that this plan may be improved on by
having pointed wire forks at the tops Of
the poles, and wires suspended. on the
connecting wire.
II have frequently noticed that when
some portions of the brushwood, from
clippings of hedges, are suffered to re-
main in the field, the grass beneath these