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very important matter to the agriculturist — but they act as storehouses of moisture and 

 distributors of electricity. The influence of trees, and especially forests, on the rain- 

 fall and the flow of springs is so well known by the dire experience of the old world, 

 that it is only necessary here to refer to it. Doubtless the cyclones, so common and so 

 destructive in the Western States, whether we consider them as violent winds only, or 

 as discharges of electricity, are due to the great scarcity of trees on the prairies. The 

 prairies being nearly destitute of trees, the winds sweep on unchecked, and when one 

 current comes in contact with another, coming from a different direction, the united 

 current takes a direction of its own and sweeps on with resistless fury until its force 

 is spent. So with electric storms ; on account of the great want of trees, there is no 

 adjacent communicating medium between the earth and the air. The positive electricity 

 in the air is not neutralized by the negative electricity of the earth, so each gains 

 strength by accumulation until they meet with some intercommunicating objects, when 

 a discharge takes place with destructive force. What now occurs on the treeless prairies 

 will take place in the older states, and in this Province if the destruction of our forests 

 is permitted to continue without compensating for it by the planting of trees sufficient 

 for the harmonious working of the laws of nature. 



But trees not only act as distributors of electricity, but as storehouses of moisture. 

 The immense surface of the leaves, when the surrounding atmosphere becomes dry, ex- 

 hales moisture and thus retards the destructive eff'ect of a dry atmosphere on vegetation. 

 Prof. Williams, of Vermont, obtained sixteen grains of water in six hours from two 

 leaves and a bud which he had sealed up in a bottle while yet attached to the tree. 

 From this we may form some idea of the immense amount of moisture that is thrown 

 off" by a large tree. It has been shown that the evaporation from an acre of forest, 

 during a whole season, is much larger than the total amount of rain-fall it receives 

 during the some period. Where do the trees obtain this excess of moisture exhaled over 

 the amount received by the rain-fall ? It is absorbed from the atmosphere at times 

 when the air is surcharged with moisture, and it is laid up until such time when the 

 surrounding atmosphere again becomes dry. 



But trees, and especially forests, by which I mean larger collections of trees, not 

 only act as storehouses of moisture, but of heat. Who has not felt the agreeable sen- 

 sation of warmth when coming to a forest while out driving during a cool summer 

 night 1 The leaves prevent the radiance of the heat of the earth, while in the open 

 country on a clear night the heat of the earth is rapidly diff'used into space. Thus 

 forests retain warmth a longer time than the open country ; and we often find that tender 

 plants near trees have escaped injury by frosts, while those not so protected wex-e 

 destroyed. 



We thus see that trees play an important part in the economy of nature during 

 the season of vegetation, but they are also valuable as shelters and wind-breaks during 

 the winter. Even small clusters of trees afford a large amount of shelter against a 

 storm, and who could calculate the beneficial effects that would be produced if several rows 

 of trees were planted along our roadways as well as along line and division fences. 

 Such extensive planting of trees would give us almost the full protection of a forest in 

 the winter, while it would give us cooler and less parched fields in the summer. 



I have so far not taken any consideration of the value of trees as timber or fuel. 

 Long before even the next generation will have passed over to the majority, will the 

 present supply of timber be exhausted, so that building material must to a large extent 

 be imported from foreign countries, that are less wasteful of the bounteous supply a 

 kind providence has provided. We owe it to our descendants that we leave the world 

 no worse than we found it. We may call a certain part of this world's goods, be it in 

 lands, in houses, in cattle or sheep, or in gold or silver, or whatever other form it may 

 be in, our own, but in reality we are only the temporary trustees of it. We come 

 naked into the world, and no matter how large an amount of wealth we may acquire, 

 we must leave it all to others, who in turn have to leave it to others again. So in reality 

 we only play the part of trustees while we are here, and as the world no more belongs to 

 the present generation than it did to the one that went before us, it becomes our duty so 

 to administer the estate entrusted to us, as at last to leave it no worse than we found 

 it. We owe it to our successors that we give them a fair chance in the race of life. 



