Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-05-01
Agricultural,
The Eject Of the Forest on che Amount
Of Rainfall.

The Effect OF the Eoreet ON the A"N"""N
Of Rainfall.
We hope none Of the readers of The Pie
nix. especially those who are owners OF for
est land or land suitable for growing forest,
failed TO read the extracts in last weeks mum
Der from ex-Gov. Holbrook's paper on For
estry," before he Brattleboro Professional
club. The Governor has lost nothing OF his
happy style Of treating rural subjects since
he used to be frequent contributor to the
county papers and other publications, more
than twenty I've years ago. The extracts pub
lished contain many useful hints which the
farmers Of this state would do well to heed
There is one conclusion, however, connect
ed with the subject of forestry, which most
scientific observers take for granted, from
which the agricultural editor Of The Phoenix
feels obliged to dissent and this ia in regard
10 the effect which forest growths, or the lack
of them, have on the rainfall. We dissent,
not because we do not love the trees not be-
cause we are not earnestly in favor OF the
preservation Of our forests and Of "zealous
attention to tree culture" but because we be-
lieve that facts do not sustain the theory usu-
ally advanced. In Windham county we have
more area in forest than we had forty years
ago. Lands in this county then cleared,
amounting, as we estimate, to more than 20
600 acres, are now in forest and another
area at least as large appears to be rapidly 60
ing the same way. We had our rainy seasons,
too wet for the best crops, when the forest
area in Windham county was less than 1t has
been 10 these later seasons OF extreme
drought
1t is not at all impossible that, through the
entire season of the growing crops, farmers
may again complain of too much rain. We
can remember a summer in our boyhood
when there we're six successive days in the
having season without rain which we then
thought very remarkable, and a kind of spe-
cial providence in favor of haymakng. In
series Of years we are likely to have, as we
have had in the past, both wet summers and
dry summers without regard to the extent of
the forest. The professor who originated
the idea that the trees caused the rain, not
the rain the trees, and supported his theory
with learned arguments, has had great fol-
lowing among other professors, and among
the people, accustomed to accept much up
on authority.
The general belief in the theory, or at
least 80 much of it az assumes that the rain
fall has been materially diminished by the
clearing of the forest, is shown by several
hundred replies to inquiries sent out by the
forest commissioners of this state. Out of
the whole number replying the commission
ers report only two dissenters and for one of
these the writer of this article is responsible.
A. ~ iubt ha
sidered as settled that the forest makes the
rain, or part of it, and that it is practicable
to increase the rainfall by planting trees and
increasing the forest area. The learned res-
sons that have been repeatedly given in sup
port of the theory appear to us entirely in
sufficient Records of the rainfall compared
with the extent of forest in our own and 9TH
or countries have been culled so as apparent
ly to prove that the amount of rain depend
ed on the quantity of the forest, but we be-
lieve that an impartial examination of com
plete records tends rather to prove the con
trary.
As shown by observations extending over
series of years, by different observers, the
rainfall during the spring and summer
months, in the northern half of Maine
which is almost entirely covered with forests
has an average range of from Il to 20 inches
while in southern New England, where there
ia little forest, the average range of rainfall
for the spring and summer months is five
inches more, or from 20 to % inches. Hi
nois comes nearer being treeless state thai
any other east of the Mississippi. One-hal
of its area in a contiguous body, will averag
less than two cords of wood and timber to tn
acre, yet the absence of forest does not max
it barren, rainless desert on the contrary
it stands in the very front rank of the state
for productiveness, and the amount of rain
fall in the treeless region averages five inche
more during the spring and summer, thai
in the densely timbered northern half o
Mic higan.