240 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



^August, 



Forestry. 



COMMUNICA riONS. 



FOREST CULTURE. 



BY E. L. KOETHEN, PITTSBURG, PA. 



The Gardener's Monthly for May con- 

 tained a well written article entitled "Our 

 Forests," to which I desire to make a short re- 

 ply. In many respects I agree with the writer. 

 All that he says about forest fires is only too true, 

 but in speaking of the effect of forest clearing 

 on the climate he goes too far in saying that it 

 is of no importance. The effects which forests 

 are supposed to have on the climate are a very 

 essential consideration. I say supposed to have, 

 because until now no reliable continued scien- 

 tific observations have been made on the subject. 

 But it is to be hoped that with the improved ap- 

 paratus, and the knowledge which has been 

 gained, the United States Signal Service may do 

 much good to science in this direction. But 

 whatever direct effect forests may have on cli- 

 mate, they certainly wield a great influence as 

 mechanical agents. As such their influences are 

 various. They protect the soil from a too rapid 

 evaporation ; the absorption of water by the 

 soil in forests is greater than in open ground. 

 They serve as a barrier to protect the surround- 

 ing country from violent winds, and prevent 

 the drifting of snow, which is in itself a great 

 protection to vegetation besides its influence as 

 a fertilizer. They have a moderating effect on 

 extreme changes of weather, both in Winter and 

 Summer. They are a protection against malaria ; 

 and finally by their absorbing the water of melt- 

 ing snows and violent rains they protect the sur- 

 face from the corrosion by swollen mountain 

 torrents. All this is discovered by actual obser- 

 vation. 



A leading author in speaking of the downfall 

 of the Roman empire and the agricultural de- 

 cline of the countries that were under its con- 

 trol, says : " Vast forests have disappeared from 

 mountain spurs and ridges ; the vegetable earth 

 accumulated beneath the trees by the decay of 

 leaves and fallen trunks, the soil of Alpine pas- 



tures which skirted and indented the woods and 

 the mould of the upland fields are washed away ; 

 meadows once fertilized by irrigation are waste 

 and unproductive, because the cisterns are broken 

 or the springs that fed them are dried up ; rivers 

 famous in history and song have shrunk to hum- 

 ble brooklets ; the willows that ornamented and 

 protected the banks of the lesser water courses 

 are gone and the rivulets have ceased to exist as 

 perennial currents, because the little water that 

 finds its way into their old channels is evapo- 

 rated by the droughts of Summer," ttc. 



It has been found by actual observation that 

 peach and pear trees are less liable to disease if 

 planted under the protection of a forest belt. 

 When Napoleon I, caused the expulsion of Eng- 

 lish iron, the Italian forges and furnaces were 

 stimulated to great activity ; the ordinary pro- 

 duction of charcoal not sufficing to supply the 

 demand, the woods were felled, the copses were 

 cut before their time and the whole economy of 

 the forest was deranged. At Piazzatorre the 

 effect of this was such that maize no longer 

 I'ipened, and at the i-estoration of the forests 

 it again grew and came to maturity. Many 

 similar instances might be cited if space al- 

 lowed. 



When this country was first discovered and 

 explored by the white man, almost all of the 

 land lying east of the Mississippi, with the ex- 

 ception of a comparatively few open plains, was 

 one vast forest well watered. But with the 

 gradual advance of civilization one portion after 

 another of this grand gift of nature was de- 

 stroyed, as the land was needed for other pur- 

 poses. Now as there was so much of this land 

 the lumber had no value ; in order to get it out 

 of the way it was burned wholesale, and this 

 continued until in such localities as were thickly 

 settled it began to be in demand. But this 

 wholesale destruction has not yet ceased, as in 

 the far West in some of the thickly wooded ter- 

 ritories, where transportation would be too ex- 

 pensive to make the shipping of lumber profit- 

 able, it is still the practice for the settlers to 

 burn off" their clearings. 



