114 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and destructiveness of the former, compared with the more mild, 

 paternal character of the latter — a wise Providence being recog- 

 nized by the preponderance of those of a more mild, paternal 

 type. 



I would not be strenuous in insisting that all our large and more 

 continental storms emanate from the great central-built storm re- 

 gions of the topics ; I call this the parent source of the storms, and 

 yet an occasional large storm evidently comes in upon us from a 

 northwesterly or northeasterly Atlantic source, and it is these 

 latter storms that our Meteorological Reports fail to indicate. The 

 point is how to retain these constantly running waters in sufficient 

 quantities to favor more frequent local showers; and here is where 

 the utility of our forests comes in. Your vast deposits of coal in- 

 dicate that a wise Providence contemplated another mission to 

 them than that of furnishing fuel for man. The influence of for- 

 ests upon climates is varied, and as eflScient in their modifying 

 forces when they cover the valleys and the plains as when upon 

 our more elevated and mountainous areas. They shield the soil 

 alike from the burning sun and your penetrating frosts, enabling 

 it to hold alike in summer and in winter our surplus moisture — 

 not only furnishing thereby constant sources of supply to our 

 springs and rivulets, but moderating the extremes of Summer's 

 heat and Winter's cold, alike favorable to both animal and vegeta- 

 ble life. They not only wrestle with the winds and moderate 

 their wrath, but hold under their protecting embraces a moist, 

 cool substratum of air — while from their leaves a vast volume of 

 moisture is constantly breathed out upon the surrounding atmos- 

 phere, favorable to the formation of dew and rain, and especially 

 conducive to more frequent showers in the hot intervals between our 

 large and more continental storms. I have watched often our 

 cloudy, rainless days, giving every promise and appearance of pre- 

 cipitation, yet it did not come upon me, while in the distance, as 

 these same clouds struck the heights of Mt. Washington passing 

 ofi easterly, they precipitated their moisture on the regions be- 

 yond, from a change of electric tension as I suppose, incident to 

 striking their more cool, moist summits. Take the region of 

 country west of Connecticut and Massachusetts ^nd lying between 

 them and the Lakes, and it is but seventy-five years since it was 

 almost one dense, splendid forest region: now, save the more east- 

 erly, mountainous parts, it has become almost wholly denuded of 



