76 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I am aware that this subject has recently been much dis- 

 cussed in the United States, but its importance is not yet gen- 

 erally appreciated nor can it be, but by the careful study of 

 the matter in countries where time has been allowed for the 

 full eflFects of the destruction of the native forests to develop 

 themselves. We are already beginning to suffer from the 

 washing away of the vegetable soil fi-om our steeper fields, 

 from the drying up of the abundant springs which once water- 

 ed our hill pastures, and from the increased violence of our 

 spring and autumnal freshets, to say nothing of the less ob- 

 vious meteorological effects of too extensive and injudicious 

 clearing ; but it is only in countries that have been laid bare 

 of their natural clothing for generations, that the extent of 

 the devastation thus produced can be comprehended. 



There is no doubt that nearly the whole of the Apennines , 

 as well as the lower slopes of the Alps and the Pyrenees, 

 the mountains of interior Spain, of the Mediterranean islands, 

 of Greece, of Asia Minor and of Syria, were at one period cov- 

 ered with timber. They were chiefly stripped of their for- 

 ests in remote ages by human improvidence, and the conse- 

 quences have been in a high degree disastrous. The most 

 obvious of these has been the increased rapidity with which 

 the rain water and melted snows are carried off, the conse- 

 quently augmented violence of the torrents in the rainy sea- 

 son, and extensive degradation of the soil and denudation of 

 the rock at the higher elevations. The arable land of whole 

 provinces has thus been laid waste, and though wide and fer- 

 tile plains have been fonncd by the deposits left by the sub- 

 siding currents, yet extensive regions have by the same cav se 

 been converted into pestilential swamps, and become entirely 

 uninha})ita])le. "Where the rock has been once laid bare, or 

 the remaining earth deeply furrowed, it appears to be no 

 longer possible to cure the evil and check future ravages ; bi t 

 the preservation of the forests on mountain slopes where they 

 now grow appears to be a secure safe-guard against the ex- 

 tension of the mischief But although in some localities thcso 



