School of Forestry at Evois, in FinlcDid. 707 



" There is no doubt that great advantages may be obtained from locating a 

 school of forestry in a university town, either in connection with the university 

 or independent thereof. Associated teachers of other subjects and museums of 

 instructive objects can then be utilized. But if a school of forestry be so located 

 it is of importance that the students of forestry should not dissipate their 

 energy by giving attention to too many different subjects. I would limit them to 

 sajjive, and leave the student to make his choice on what five subjects he shall 

 be examined. These might be — 1. Compulsory or necessary subjects : Forest 

 science, political economy, law, botany, mineralogy and geology, land surveying, 

 forest mathematics , forest zoology. 2. Optional subjects : Chemistry or natural 

 philosophy, — the five sciences given in italics being indispensable; but only in 

 one of these would I demand excellence : in the others I would be satisfied with 

 the verdict ' satisfactory.' ' Non multa sed multum ' is an important principle." 



These views by Professor Blomqvist are well deserving of con- 

 sideration. Meanwhile the whole shows what importance is attached 

 by men well qualified to judge of what is required for the proper 

 management of forests, in the education and instruction of men 

 entrusted with this work. 



Influence of Trees on Rainfall. — There can be little doubt that there is 

 a distinct connection between the rainfall and mean temperature of a countiy 

 and the number of trees the latter may possess. Trees are magnificent 

 regulators of climature. They are to it what the pair of revolving 

 " governor-balls " are to a stationary engine. When the engine is going too 

 fast, the " governor-balls " distend, and " throttle " or compress the aperture 

 whence the motive steam-power is issuing. When the engine is working 

 slowly, the balls droop, and so open the valve as to allow more steam to issue. 

 The same with the woods and forests of a country. When the rainy seasons 

 are on, every tree and plant absorbs some of the moisture, and stores it away 

 in its own tissues. It thus prevents great quantities from flowing off the 

 surface, and gathering into rills and rivulets, and so swelling the main rivers 

 as to cause them to overflow their lowest lying banks. During periods of 

 drought the leaves of the same forest give out the moisture they consumed 

 into the atmosphere, and so prevent its being as dry and parching as it other- 

 wise would have been. During the hours of night, also, the surfaces of the 

 leaves become colder than the air, and thus the moisture contained in the 

 latter is condensed upon them as dews. In many parts of Arabia this is 

 the only kind of waterfall with which the parched earth is visited. The 

 destruction of woods and forests, therefore, is always attended by an 

 alteration of climate for the worse. It becomes more irregular. There are 

 now alternate periods of rainfall and consequent floods, and of droughts. No 

 country in the world has been so altered in this respect as the United States, 

 for in no other has there been so much clearing of forest land within the last 

 two centuries. In Italy great destruction of forests has taken place, and the 

 summers are now more arid and hot in consequence. The reader will find in 

 the Hon. G. Marsh's '^ Physical Geography as influenced by Human Action," a 

 long list of parallel cases, where men have unconsciously modified the climate 

 of the country in which they dwelt.—" Watery Wastes,'" Uj Br. Taylor 

 F.G.S., ^c. 



