USES OF THE FORESTS. 5 



low country through the longest summers, and moderating the 

 violence of droughts by mists and dews. All along the coast of 

 New England, numerous little streams, which were formerly fed 

 by the forests, and often rolled a volume of water sufficient to 

 turn a mill in summer, are now dried up at that season, and 

 only furnish a drain for the melting snows of spring, or the 

 occasional great rains of autumn. 



Forests thus equalize the temperature and soften the climate, 

 protecting from the extremes of cold and heat, dryness and 

 humidity. There is little doubt that, if the ancient forests of 

 Spain could be restored to its hills, its ancient fertility would 

 return. Now, there is nothing to conduct electricity, nothing to 

 arrest the clouds and make them pour their treasures upon the 

 earth, no reservoirs to lay up the winter's rain in store against 

 the droughts of summer. 



3. Forests protect a country from the violence of winds. The 

 lively author of "Life in Mexico" writes,* " M. de Humboldt, 

 who examined the will of Cortes, informs us that the conqueror 

 had left sugar plantations near Cuyoacan, in the valley of 

 Mexico, Avhere now, owing, it is supposed, to the cutting down 

 of the trees, the cold is too great for sugar cane or any other 

 tropical production to thrive." And a most intelligent gentle- 

 man in Worcester tells me, that he attributes the greater diffi- 

 culty now experienced in the cultivation of the more delicate 

 fruits in that town, to the fact, that the encircling hills, formerly 

 crowned with trees, are now, to a considerable degree, laid bare. 

 The laws of the motion of the atmosphere are similar to those 

 of water. A bare hill gives no protection. The wind pours 

 over it as water pours over a dam. But if the hill be capped 

 with trees, the windy cascade will be broken as into spray. 

 Its violence will be sensibly diminished. We are not aware, 

 on the now protected and irregular surface of New England, 

 how important are the screens furnished by the forests. Trav- 

 ellers from Illinois tell us, that on the vast prairies in that and 

 some of the other western States, the wind is almost always 

 fresh, and often blows a gale, before which men can hardly 



* Volume II., p. 52. 



