756 INFLUENCE OF FORESTS UPON STREAMS. [April 



It will not suffer from late spring frosts destroying the tender shoots, 

 and thus making it coarse and jointy ; and consequently will realize 

 more money at five years' growth than an alder gully will do at 

 seven. Willow " splashers " strike well into the soil the first season, 

 so that vacant spaces can be successfully filled up with them. — Tlic 

 Garden. 



INFLUENCE OF FOEESTS UFON THE FLOW OF STREAMS 

 AND UPON FLOODS AND DROUGHTS:^ 



WHATEVEE doubt there may be as to the direct influence 

 of forests in the production of rain, there can be none in 

 regard to their effect upon the distribution of the rainfall by means 

 of springs and streams. The responses received during the year to 

 the inquiries on this subject made by this division, confirm the 

 conclusions arrived at by observations and inquiries which have 

 been made from time to time in this and other countries. With 

 one voice they attest the fact that the removal of the forests from 

 the neighbourhood of streams not only lessens the whole amount of 

 water flowing in their channels, but renders its flow much more 

 irreirular than before. In the case of the smaller streams, where 

 the forests adjacent to them, or in which they have tlieir head- 

 springs, have been cut off, the streams have often been so reduced 

 as, at certain seasons of the year, almost to disappear. And, in the 

 case of streams, whether large or small, the result has been to pro- 

 duce floods when the snows melt in spring-time, or after heavy 

 rains, to be followed by a greatly diminished flow of water after- 

 M'ards, especially in those seasons of the year when rains are least 

 frequent and copious. 



As to the direct influence of forests in producing rain or increas- 

 ing its amount in their immediate vicinity, and their consequent 

 favourable effect upon agriculture and the supply of water for 

 springs and streams, although the preponderance of evidence at 

 present seems to favour the conclusion that they have such an 

 influence, further observation and careful and extended experiment 

 are necessary before this can be considered definitely and con- 

 clusively settled. 



Hardly anything, liowever, can be regarded as being better 

 settled, by extended observation, than that the forests are great 

 regulators of the distribution of the water precipitated from the 

 clouds, and consequently of the flow of streams. By their shade 



" From Report of Commissioner of Agriculture, X'.S.A. 



