Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-17
THE USES OF FORESTS.

Why Frees Are Valuable Apart From
 the Question of Timber supply.
 From the Scientific Newsl
 Some time back the world was of opinion
 that trees were of value merely as supplies
 of timber, and that where building nateri-
 als could be easily imported country might,
 without any disadvantage, be laid entirely
 bare. To be sure few far-seeing individu-
 als, such as Bernard Palissy, were aware of
 the influence of woodlands as regulators of climate. Similar views were taken in anti quity by Critias, who spoke vaguely of the sickness of the country in consequence of the deforestation," and in 1540 by Fernando Colon, who declared that the rains in Made ria, Azores, and the Canaries had become rarer since the trees had been cut dewn. But, in spite of these warnings, the process of ''clearing" was carried on in most coun- tries with reckless haste.
 This havoc was not arrested until its con- sequences were pointed out by Humboldt, Boussingault and Beequerel, and by still | more authoritative teacher, experience, whe on this occasion seems to have charged unu ! sually high school fees. One of the mos I important effects of woods upon a climate is | that they promote rain. The theory of thit | | facts themselves are matters Of experience There are districts oa the continent where 1 the chief rivers have decreased notably 1T ! volume since the clearing of the districts about their sources. We have seen small l stream, tributary of the Oder, which, with
 in the memory of living persons, turned in it's course two or three corn mills. At the 1 time of our visit it was dry all the summer months save immediately after a thunder storm. In many districts of southern France the destruction of the forests has caused
 much more striking mischief.
 The rain, instead of falling as heretofore l in moderate showers, now comes in violent gushes, with long periods of drought be- tween. As the natural consequence the grasses and other low-growing plants perish, their roots wither away and the soil, nc | longer held together by their flores, is washed away by the occasional violent rains and car' ried down into the beds of the rivers. The I hillsides and the higher plains remain as bar l ren wastes of sand, gravel and shingie. A similar process has been going on in Spain | Italy, Greece, Algeria, Morocco and in short all around the Mediterranean. Countries which were once the granaries of the world, and which supported a numerous and thrl wing population, are now little better than deserts. Nor has this mischief been con- fined to Europe. The vegetable wealth of South Africa, when it first became known to Europeans, was remarkable.
 The Cape was the source of numbers of | our finest greenhouse plants. But now vast I tracts have been rendered so desolate that a | troop of the Colonial cavalry on the march actually gave three cheers at the sight of 8 | tree Even in tho United States, once re- garded as eminently the land of forests, many regions have lost, first their vegetation \ and then their soil, in consequence of tree | felling. It may perhaps here be objected I that, fully admitting all these unfavorable l changes, they may possibly have been pro- l duced by unknown causes, and would have ! occurred all the same if the woodlands had not been interfered with. This plea can ca | silly be refuted. In many of the countries | above mentioned 1eplanting has been under taken on a large scale by individuals, by | communities and by governments, and with ! the most decisive results.
 Wherever such attempts have been made | the climate becomes less extreme, the rain. | fall more uniformly distributed and public | health is improved. Such beneficial changes have been distinctly recognized in north western India, where fertility is gradually returning to the deserts. In France, with
 in about twenty years, two hundred ano l fifty thousand acres of mountain lands and ! nearly the same extent of sandy coast landi have been replanted-of course at great ex pense, but with the most satisfactory re suits. In America also replanting is beinG l vigorously carried on. An eminent agri cultural authority in the United States hal given it as his opinion that if one-fourtl
 ct country is left covered with trees, tn
 remaining three-fourths will yield bette 1 return in the shape of crops than it would
 ii stripped bare.