The Maintenance of our Woodlands. 141 



An error in the cultivation of a field crop may be remedied the 

 next year, and in the worst event that can happen, a total failure, 

 we can profit by the experience and may not be ruined by the 

 result. But a crop of timber requires a lifetime and sometimes 

 longer, to come to full maturity, and it becomes a matter of great 

 importance that we make it worth as much as possible, which can 

 only be done by close attention in the beginning, and can scarcely 

 be remedied afterwards. The first attention should therefore be 

 given to the securing of a growth of most profit, and this implies 

 a knowledge of the adaptation of soil and climate to the require- 

 ments of the kinds we would grow, and of the management that 

 these kinds require to insure greatest success. 



In the northern part of Wisconsin, there are immense forests 

 still remainiug, which in density and dimensions are only sur- 

 passed by those of the Pacific coast. If the owners of these forests 

 could but see their own interest, they would not hasten to destroy 

 these noble supplies of timber, which, if reserved and managed 

 with due intelligence, would yield a much greater revenue than 

 at present, and might be maintained much longer than there is 

 present prospect. They owe their existence in part to the climatic 

 conditions that result from their proximity to the great lakes, and 

 from the rugged nature of the surface, the soil in that region is 

 worth more for the growth of timber than for anything else. It 

 remains to be known as to how far the heavy rainfall that is now 

 annually received in the region bordering the southern shore of 

 Lake Superior is due to the presence of these forests, and whether 

 it might not happen to fail, or change to other regions, were these 

 forests removed. Many times in the earth's history it has been 

 found when too late, that great bodies of woodlands, or groves 

 interspersed among cultivated lands, have operated to cause 

 abundant precipitations of rain, and that these rains have become 

 irregular in their occurrence, and insufficient to maintain fertility 

 to the country when these woodlands had been cut away. Heavy 

 rains are experienced whenever an atmosphere laden with moist- 

 ure is brought over a surface that tends to cool it down below 

 the dew point or degree at which the moisture can be suspended 

 no longer. In a cool climate, but a slight change of temperature 



