The Beneficial Influence of Trees. 



By LEWIS^BAYiVE, Forester, Kinmel Pakk. 



l*r.ACTlCAL forestry is considered by many to consist of the plant- 

 ing and rearing of plantations, with a view to the production of 

 the greatest quantity of timber, of the best possible quality^ in the 

 shortest time, and with the smallest expenditure, on a given space of 

 laud. Such is, no doubt, one of its greatest objects, never to be lost 

 sight of by the forester who undertakes the management of planta- 

 tions, whether for profit, ornament, or shelter. A proprietor, however, 

 who considers that the direct revenue produced from the sales of his 

 timber, &c., the only benefit he receives from his woods, who puts 

 no value or consideration upon the improved appearance which 

 plantations give to his property, and who overlooks the indirect profits 

 and benefits derived from their shelter, and the influence for good 

 which they exercise on the climate, takes a very narrow and partial 

 view of the matter. 



The beneficial effect of trees and shrubs on climate and tempera- 

 ture, whether planted in large bodies, in smaller group s, or singly, 

 is very marked and of the utmost importance, as from their 

 judicious distribution the summers are made more cool and the 

 winters more genial and warm. In other words, they equalize to a 

 great extent the temperature both of summer and winter, by 

 modifying the extreme heat of the one and the extreme cold of the 

 other. 



The influence of trees and forests on the rainfall of a country is 

 very generally admitted, and this is specially worthy of consideration 

 at the present time, when thorough draining — one of tlie foremost of 

 agricultural improvements — is being so extensively carried out. 



There is possibly no class of men who have a greater abhorrence of 

 trees and plantations than the tenant farmers ; * we find them in this 

 neighbourhood, as elsewhere, waging a continual warfare against trees in 

 the vicinity of their fields, alleging as a reason either that the roots absorb 

 nutriment from and exhaust the land under crop in parts of the fields 

 adjoining the trees, or that nothing will grow under their shade. The 



[*We are glad to kaow a different feeliag prevails amongst farmers in many 

 parts of the country, which we trust will become general as education advances 

 and the subject is better understood. — Ed. -/. F.] 



