252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



apparent to the most casual observer. Onr springs are later ; 

 our summers are drier, and every year becoming more so ; our 

 autumns are carried forward into winter, while our winter 

 climate is subject to far greater changes of temperature than 

 formerly. The total average snowfall is perhaps as great as 

 ever, but it is certainly less regular, and covers the ground 

 for a shorter period than formerly. It is interesting to note 

 in this connection the conclusion which Noah Webster* drew 

 three-quarters of a century ago, showing that, even at that 

 time, before the cutting off the forests had assumed the impor- 

 tance which it does to-day, similar climatic changes were at 

 work. "From a careful comparison of these facts," he says, 

 "it appears that the weather in modern winters in the United 

 States is more inconstant than when the earth was covered 

 with woods, at the first settlement of Europeans in this coun- 

 try ; that the warm weather of autumn extends further into 

 the winter months, and the cold weather of winter and spring 

 encroaches upon the summer ; that the wind being more vari- 

 able, snow is less permanent ; and perhaps the same remark 

 may be applicable to the ice of the rivers." Mr. Marsh 

 arrives at nearly the same conclusion. "So far as we are 

 able to sum up the results," he says, "it would appear that 

 in countries in the temperate zone, still chiefly covered with 

 woods, the summers would be cooler, shorter ; the winters 

 milder, drier, longer than in the same regions after the removal 

 of the forests; and the condensation and precipitation of 

 atmospheric moisture would be, if not greater in total quan- 

 tity, more frequent and less violent in discharge." 



Such changes of climate are everywhere noticed, in coun- 

 tries from which the forests have been extensively removed ; 

 and if they are not more apparent in Massachusetts, it is 

 owing to its propinquity to the ocean, which exerts an impor- 

 tant, and, of course, perpetual control over the temperature 

 of all regions within its influence, preventing the excessive 

 and sudden changes which often mark an inland climate. 

 But even here there are certain changed conditions which 

 can only find a solution in climatic deterioration traceable to 

 the destruction of the forests. 



* A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary and Moral Subjects. New York. 

 1843. 



