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climates through the forests of a country. For want of space we cannot 

 enter into a full discussion of this important branch of this subject, but 

 will only state a historical fact in the language of one of the best authors 

 who has ever written on this subject. 



Hon. G-. P. Marsh, speaking of the effect of the destruction of forests 

 upon the different countries of the earth, says : " There are parts of 

 Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine Europe, 

 where the operation of causes set in action by man has brought the face 

 of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon. 

 The destructive changes occasioned by the agency of man upon the 

 flanks of the Alps, the Appenines, the Pyrenees and other mountain 

 regions in central and southern Europe, and the progress of physical 

 deterioration, have become so rapid that, in some localities, a single gen- 

 eration has witnessed the beginning and the end of the melancholy 

 revolution." 



Words could not more truthfully describe the effects produced by 

 similar causes in some portions of our own State. Mr. Marsh continues": 

 " It is certain that a desolation like that which has overwhelmed many 

 once beautiful and fertile regions of Europe awaits an important part of 

 the territory of the United States, unless prompt measures are taken to 

 check the action of destructive causes already in operation." This last 

 remark applies with greater force to a large share of our own State than 

 many of us are aware of. 



NATURAL REPRODUCTION OF FORESTS. 



In countries where rains are of frequent occurrence during the summer 

 season, keeping the surface of the soil moist, vegetation, however deli- 

 cate and tender, once started in the spring of the year, continues to 

 grow until checked by the succeeding autumn or winter. By this time 

 the roots have obtained such a hold on the ground as to secure continued 

 life, unless desti'oyed by artificial causes. Not so in our State. The 

 dry season here follows so rapidly after the wet and germinating period, 

 that, without irrigation or cultivation, tender and delicate plants, like 

 young trees of all kinds grown from seed bying on the surface, as they 

 fall from the parent trees, are almost always dried up and destroyed 

 before they are four months old. Hence it is that a section of country 

 once stripped of trees and shrubbery, in our State, always remains 

 naked. Once a prairie always a prairie, until art comes to the assist- 

 ance of nature. Hence it is that wheresoever our forests have been cut 

 down and cleared away, allowing the rays of the sun to fall directly on 

 the soil, so few young trees, or trees of the "second growth," are to be 

 found. 



REMEDIES FOR EXISTING AND IMPENDING EVILS. 



The remedies for existing and impending evils, some of which we have 

 briefly noticed as growing out of the consumption and destruction of 

 our forests, are two fold. The one preventive and the other restorative. 

 Much maybe done in various ways and through various sources, to dis- 

 countenance and prevent the useless and careless destruction of timber 

 and wood. Whatever can be done should be done at once. No means 

 and no opportunity to use pursnasion, argument or law to put a stop to 

 this evil should be neglected. The influence of individuals, of associations, 

 of the various industrial organizations, whether agricultural, mechanical 

 or commercial, should be exerted in calling attention to this subject and 



