195 



The great monarchs of the earth have been the forest kings. Of our American Presidents 

 only two or three could be called city-bred, and the six Presidents whom the world would 

 now agree to call great — Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, Grant and Garfield — 

 all of these were born in the woods, were educated in the woods and by the woods, and 

 spent their stout young manhood among the trees. Most of the masters in literature, 

 were masters of wood-craft. The true poets are all forest-poets. The great writers of 

 romance are nearly all lovers of trees, and the most wonderful of all imaginations lias 

 made us actually know the Forest of Arden, and Birnam Wood, and Windsor Forest. 

 The inspiration of the woods has always been a healthy, hearty one, for great men and 

 small men alike, and I know there are none here who cannot find in the woods all that is 

 worth asking for, as in the chief petition of Lowell's " Beggar ": — 



" A little of thy steadfastness, 

 Rounded with leafy gracefulness, 



Old oak, give me, — 

 That the world's blast may round me blow, 

 And I yield gently to and fro, 

 While my stout-hearted trunk below, 

 And firm-set roots unshaken be." 



The sanitary value of forests, according to our present light, is thus summed up by 

 George L. Andrew, M.D., of Laporte, Indiana, in his paper on this subject : — 



1. Forests increase the amount of condensation over their own areas, but by reason 

 of the amount intercepted by their leaves and stems, the annual rain-fall at the earth's 

 surface is not, perhaps, materially affected by their presence or absence, in regions well 

 covered with other vegetation and thoroughly cultivated. 



2. By means of their interlaced roots, mosses, lichens and humus, they check the 

 efflux of superflous rain-fall, thus regulating the water supply in streams and springs, and 

 decreasing the proportion of the annual percipitation that is borne to the sea by the 

 natural drainage of the country. 



3. Forests diminish the evaporation from the earth's surface — the evaporation from 

 a surface of water in the woods was 64 per cent, less than outside the same — but this de- 

 ficiency is much more than compensated by the increased evaporation from the leaves. 



4. Trees modify temperature ; wooded countries being warmer in winter and cooler 

 in summer. This they do by radiation, but owing to their slow conducting power the 

 times of their daily maximum and minimum do not occur until some hours after tlie 

 same phases in the temperature of the air, thus distributing the heat of the day more 

 equally over the twenty-four hours. The yearly variations of temperature in the woods 

 and the daily variations in summer are less than in the open fields, and it is well known 

 than an equable temperature is the most conducive to health. 



5. Forests and tree belts are of undoubted value in preventing the dissemination of 

 malaria. 



6. Trees are of positive sanitary value in affording shelter from the excessive heat 

 of the sun, and from the violence of winds. 



7. The importance of devoting to forests all regions unfit for profitable culture, and 

 of protecting them by an enlightened public sentiment, as well as by legal enactment, is 

 both a sanitary and economical necessity. 



The following papers present further arguments of a similar character for the pre- 

 servation of a due proportion of our forests : — 



WHY SHOULD WE PLANT TREES 1 



By Dr. A. Eby, Sebringsville, Ont. 



As trees perform an important part in the economy of nature, wisdom demands of 

 us that we should assist her in her work, instead of interfering with it, as is too often 

 the case. Trees are not only valuable for their fruit and their timber, but are useful for 

 their moderating influence on the climate. Not only do trees act as wind-breaks — a 



