XIV 



man, is abandoned by him ami domes 1^ 

 animals, and suneuclei'ed to the undis- 

 turbed influences of spontaneous naluie, 

 its soil, sooner or later, c'othes itself with 

 herbaceous and arbo.esoent jiiiiUt-, and, at 

 no Ions interval with torest .i^iowth lor 

 this thre? negative qualities, exemption 

 from defect or excess of moisture, fiom 

 perpetual frost, and from the depreda- 

 tions of men and biowsingf quailrupeds. 



We thus see how the toiest grew, and by 

 continually shedding its leaves increased 

 the depth of vegetab.e soil, till man made 

 the forest give j^lace to the gaiden and r.o 

 tiie fruitful field, produced l)y man s de- 

 vice. We might thus a^i^ume that the 

 sole use of the forest is to produce the 

 soil for agriculture. But all is not gain. 

 Evil as wel". as good has followed in the 

 wake of the artificial change. Marsh says 

 as follows: — With the exarpatiou of the 

 forest all is changed. At one season the 

 •earth pa its with its warmth, by radiation 

 to an open sky; receives, at another, im- 

 moderate heat from the unobstiucted rays 

 of the sun. Hence the climate becomes 

 excessive, and the soil is alternate'y Darch- 

 ■ed by the fervouis of summer, and scar- 

 red bj' the rigors of winter. Bleak winds 

 sweep unresisted over its surface, drift 

 away the snow that sheltered it 

 from the fiost, and diy up its scanty 

 moisture. The precipitation becomes 

 as irregular as the temperature; the 

 melted snows and varied rains, no 

 longer absorbed by a loose and bibu- 

 "ar vegetable mould, rush over the 

 frozen surface, and pour down the val- 

 lej- seawards, instead of filling a reten- 

 tive bed of absorbed earth, and storing 

 up a supply of moisture to feed perennial 

 springs. From the soil being no longer 

 protected, the action of the sun and 

 wind dries up the surface, and forms 

 dust which is washed into the streams, 

 and tends to silt up the rivers forming 

 bars at their mouths, and spoiling har- 

 bours made by nature. This state of af- 

 fairs has been going on since long before 

 ihe advent of Christianity, and numer- 

 ous cures have been suggested, till scien- 

 tific forestry has stepped in to remedy the 

 evil, although vast tracts of forest have 

 l^een destroyed by natural causes, such as 

 frosts, fli ought, epiphetie and parasitic 

 vegetable growths, and insects, birds, and 

 D easts. 



But to a far greater extent have for- 

 ests been destroyed _ by reckless fellings 

 in wasteful exploitations; to some extent 

 liave injuries Ijeen done by flocks and 

 herds depastured in the woods; and to a 

 great extent have forests been destroj^ed 

 hy fire applied to the clearing away" of 

 trees, in order that the ground ma.y be 

 ■obtained for agriculture, and by fires 

 attributed to accident, but to accideii, 

 :attributable to the carelessness of man. 



There must be conservation agaijist de- 



struction occurring irrespective of man's 

 agency, against destruction through 

 man's carelessness, against destruction 

 through man's dishonesty, and witli this 

 an imj)roved, more economic, and less 

 wastefu". forest exploitation; with which, 

 again, may be conjoined foiest restora- 

 tion, reboisement as a preventive of the 

 formation of destructive torrents and in- 

 undations, or to assist rainfall, or ar- 

 rest and utilise drifting sand. 



The climate of countries covered by 

 forests is more equable than that 

 of deforested countries. This benefit de- 

 rived from forests has been proved in 

 France, Germany, the Cape, and India 

 bj' simultaneous records inside and out- 

 side forests. Where the land is densely 

 wooded the rains may be diffused more* 

 or less equably over several months in 

 the year, and maj^ frequently be of a 

 drizzling character. while in a land 

 similarly situated, devoid of trees, rain 

 falls irregularly in what seems like 

 thunder plumps, and an extieme cast-^ 

 whole years may pass without rain, as is 

 the case in the Karoo, South Africa, and 

 Aden, South Arabia; and the rain in the 

 foiest land may fall pretty equably ovei 

 the whole district, while in the land de- 

 void of forests iti falls now here, now 

 there; falls, it may be, in torrents, de- 

 luging the land, while extensive districts 

 are left dry — both occasioning great in- 

 equalit.y in the distribution, even where 

 the quantitj- of rain falling may be 

 Ijroximately equal; and the inequality 

 in benefit from what falls is made still 

 greater by the torrential occasional rain.- 

 draining off rapidly to the river beds, 

 and by them to the sea, while the wood- 

 lands absorb and retain a much larger 

 l)ortion of what falls on them. And 

 thus is fulfilled what is written: ^'The 

 earth which drinketh in the rain that 

 cometh oft upon it bringeth forth herbs, 

 meat for those by whom it is dressed, 

 and receiveth the blessing of God ; but 

 that which beareth thorns and briars is 

 rejected, and is nigh unto cursing." 



The following, by dules Maistre, would 

 refer to the vine industry in Australia: 

 — "The plij'lloxera has its propagation 

 facilitated, or has the way prepared for 

 it )).y the most powerful and most gene- 

 ral enemy of this entire region. It is 

 manifest that this is the enemy, which 

 equally with that, or still more, should 

 command our attention and our vigilant 

 watchfulness, and that against which we 

 ought to contend with our greatest en- 

 ergy." 



"With us it is the enemy not only of 

 the vine, but of all culture: this enemy 

 which successively and progressively has 

 made the peasant to give up the culture 

 of flax, of ;hemp, of maize, and of 

 gi>iin; this enemy which has constrained 



