The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-02-24

made terrace-wise along the hill-sides, so as TO
cut across the torrents and force them into Z Mg-
gag, the rains dii little harm; where the noun
tain sides were bare, the roads and bridges were
swept away, and the valleys covered with
shingie.
These, then, are the two great uses Of forests
to increase the rainfall, and TO prevent 1t from
coming in devastating foods instead OF in fertile
showers. The first is most valuable IN hot coun-
tries. 1t is sad to think what mischief has been
wrought in the fairest countries of the world by
reckless destruction of forests. Persia, the whole
Indus valley, the valley of the Euphrates, and,
above all, Lesser Asia, have each Of them suffer
ed grieEously from this waste. Lesser Asia the
Greeks looked on as the garden Of the world il
Is now subject to droughts ike that which not
long ago spread death through whole provinces.
The same every where. The millions of mulber-
ry-trees planted in Egypt since Mehemet Ais
time have actually brought rain to that hitherto
rainless land the plantations here and there
along the Suez Canal are doing the same.
The other effect of forests tells every where.
In the forest of Montant, In the department OF
the Aude, a stream used TO turn a whole string
of fulling-miIls. The land was disforested, and
the trees were wholly cut down. At once the
supply of water became so irregular that the
mills were stopped during a considerable part OF
the year. The commune has lately replanted its
forest and now the stream runs all the year
round, and the mills go on as merrily as of old.
III TIC uCiRIOOIIuE OkG-A 1OAbNA ObCNA -
tons have been made in two valleys, one wooded,
the other treeless. After rain, there is much
less water from the first but then it lasts much
longer-does not all run away in q Hood, as it
does from the other. The reason why on our
maps Of Palestine nearly every river is marked
with dotted lines as " a winter torrent" is be-
cause the country has been almost barred of tim
Der. We shall never be able to get rid of foods
but forests undoubtedly lessen their violence by
letting the water down gradually.
No doubt one may have to much OF a good
thing. Gaul in Caesars time was far colder than
it is now, because both it and Germany were to
q great extent one vast forest. The Rhine in those
days used to be regularly frozen hard enough for
troops to march across. Italy was colder than
it is now, from the same cause so was England.
West Africa and partG of tropical America are
pestilential, because the soil is so saturated,
owing to the thick forests, and consequently
small evaporation, that it can hold no more, and
the rains cause marshes, which last from one
rainy season to the next. Too many trees are,
in this case, nearly as bad as none at all it is a
choice between the Sahara and the Gold Coast.
But even in such places trees should be cut down
with judgment, and should be replaced by the
fever-preVenting Eucalyptus while in India and
in Ceylon the coffee planter and the man who
cuts railway fuel need to be narrowly watched,
and in New Zealand and Australia the reckless
ness of the emigrant wants checking. 1t is so
easy to make a place treeless, so difficult to re-
clothe it again. The French are finding this out,
and We might take a leaf out of their book.
Trees are living things, working for the good of
the common veal and if we reoklessly destroy
them, we lessen the sum of national life, and
therefore the amount of national power.