178 DISCUSSION OF THE DESECGATION QUESTION. 



for " timber " occupies but n very small proportion of its area ; but it would 

 not be easy to find any jiart of the earth's surface of the exalted value of 

 which its inhabitants have a higher opinion. If the country has been ren- 

 dered treeless by human hands, it has not, in the process, been in the slight- 

 est degree reduced " to the commercial and social level of the disforested 

 countries of the MediteiTanean." * 



The consideration of this subject might be much prolonged, and a large 

 amount of additional evidence brought forward, showing that there is, in 

 many places, an abundant precipitation on regions quite destitute of trees. 

 At present, however, no more need be said on this point. Farther on, it will 

 be advisable, after having discussed the nature of the causes influencing pre- 

 cipitation, both in amount and distribution, on the earth, to recur to the sub- 

 ject of the treeless regions about the Mediterranean, and to explain why 

 the climate there is what it is. At present only a few words may be added 

 in regard to influence of forests on climate, and their connection with the 

 welfare of the people. 



Forests may cover a country so densely as to be a heavy drawback to its 

 settlement and cultivation ; as, for instance, is the case over a large area in 

 Washington Territory and Oi'egon. Forests may even be a terrible curse 

 to the inhabitants, where they exist in too great abundance, as the experi- 

 ence of the settlers in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin has, within the past 

 few years, repeatedly and most lamentably shown. A country too thickly 

 timbered is not capable of cultivation, neither is it a healthy one. Every 

 new and densely forested country must, therefore, go through a preliminary 

 course of having its trees cut down, and replaced by a second growth, suita- 

 ble to the wants and conditions of the inhabitants. Of course while this is 

 being done " lumber " is both abundant and cheap, and as the forests are 

 gradually removed it becomes dearer ; this, however, by no means implies 

 ruin. That the supply of timber in many regions is drawn upon faster than 

 it need be, and that it is often recklessly wasted, is not to be denied. It is 

 the custom of mankind to waste that which nature has supplied to them in 

 the greatest profusion. Such waste is a part of a general system of un- 

 thrift ; but there is nothing necessarily more alarming in wasting forests 

 than in wasting soil, or other good gifts of Providence. 



In nature there is every grade of tree productiveness, according as the 

 combined conditions of soil and climate vary. We may have regions, like 



* See ante, p. 163. 



