J'KESKRVATION Ol' TIIK WOODS ANIi F0KEST8. 



after tlie sottlomont of the country ; now tliey fail entireiy. We have less snow, more 

 sovere coKl winds, anJ winter wheat :m<l other such crops are much more uncertain 

 llian fonnt'rly. Our summers, also, are marked by extremes of heat and drouth to a 

 far "-reater extent. Very nmch of tliis eliaiiLje is unquestionably owing to tlie absence 

 of the extensive forests that formerly covered a large portion of the country ; and wo 

 sliall feel it yet woi"se tlian now, unless the existing remnants of them be carefully 

 managed. 



Not long ago, we saw it stated in a French journal, that the population of certain 

 districts had made application to the government, to aid in establishing plantations of 

 trees, as the cutting down of the forests had so aflected their climate as to render culti- 

 vation diflicult and unprofitable. Emerson, in his Trees of Massachusetts, brings for- 

 ward several facta bearing on this point, lie says : 



" Anotlicr use of forests is to serve as conductors of electricity between the clouds and 

 its great reservoir, the earth ; thus giving activity to the vital powers of plants, and leading 

 the clouds to discharge their contents upon the earth. A few tall trees on the sunmiit of 

 a hill are sufficient to produce this etTect. A charged thunder cloud, which passes unbro- 

 ken over a bare hill, will pour down its moisture, if its electricity is drawn oft' by these 

 natural conductors. The dry sterility of some parts of S[)ain, anciently very fertile, is 

 probably owing, in a great degree, to the improvident destruction of the forests, and the 

 absurd laws whicli discourage their renewal. The forests also coat the earth and keep it 

 warm in winter, shutting in the central heat which would otherwise more rapidly radiate 

 iftto space and be lost. If you go into the woods at the end of a severe winter, you may 

 any where easily drive down a stake without impediment from the frost; while in the open 

 field by their edge, you find a foot or more of earth frozen solid. Forests act not less 

 favorably as a protection against the excessive heat of the summer's sun, which rajjidly 

 evaporates tlie moisture and parches up the surface. The first Mahogany cutters in Hondu- 

 ras found the cold under the immense forests so great, that they were obliged, thougli within 

 16" of the equator, to kindle fires to keep themselves warm.* The rain, falling on the 

 woods of a hill-side, is retained by the deep and spongy mass formed by the roots and the 

 accumulated deposit of leaves, instead of rushing down, as it otherwise woidd, in torrents, 

 carrying with it great quantities of loose soil. Protected also from rapid evaporation, it 

 remains laid up as in a reservoir, trickling gradually out and forming perennial streams, 

 watering and fertilizing the low country through the longest summers, and moderating the 

 violence of drouths by mists and dews. All along the coast of New England, numerous 

 little streams, which were formerly fed by the forests, and often rolled a volume of water 

 sufficient to turn a mill in summer, are now dried up at that season, and only furnish a 

 drain for the melting snows of spring, or the occasional great rains of autumn. 



" Forests thus ecjualize the temperature and soften the climate, protecting from the ex- 

 tremes of cold and heat, dryness and humidity. There is little doubt that, if the ancient 

 forests of Spain could be restored to its hills, its ancient fertility would return. Now there 

 is nothing to conduct electricity, nothing to arrest the clouds and make them pour their 

 treasures upon the earth, no reservoirs to lay up the winter's rain in store against the 

 drouths of summer. 



■"Forests protect a country from the violence of winds. The lively author of '■Life in 

 Mexico' writeSjt ' M. de Uumboldt, who examined the will of Cortes, informs us that the 



* " ' Xt Oiiiana, In South America, within five degroes of the line, the inhabitants living amid immense forests, a 

 century ago, were obliged to alleviate the severity of Jhc cold by evening fires. Even the duration of the rainy sea 

 •b«tn shortened by the clearing of the country, and the warmth is so increased, that a fire now w 

 an annoyance.' — L're's Dictionary of ChemiaU-y, — article, Climate." 

 olume H., p. 52. 



