200 



Gstion of the origin of species of plants or animals, or the 

 ry creation of the same. The Mosaic account I receive as at present advised, 

 but I am always in favour of full discussion and experiment. In other lands elaborate 

 preparation of soil and seeds and culture are needed to grow forests, even where the rain- 

 fall or possible irrigation will allow. But here, in all the woodlands at least, and in most 

 of the cultivated fields, it is only necessary to keep off the stock and the plow, and the 

 original forests will be exactly restored. In the prairies of southern Kentucky, once bare 

 of trees, by these methods oak forests have been every where grown, till by such means 

 and culture the original features of the country are entirely changed. If all the country 

 lying west of the Mississippi river, having a less rainfall annually than twenty inches, 

 be unfit for farming, it will probably be also unfit for forest culture. The facts should 

 be known and submitted to at once, without further disaster there, proved by melancholy 

 experience. Then by artesian wells, local waters, and other means, affording life, support 

 to man and beast, the rich and scant foliage of grass and shrubs of part of the year's 

 growth' could be utilized by grazing, and winter hay, and crops suited to the rainy 

 seasons when there are any. Sheep, and Angora and other Asiatic goats, would be well 

 suited to many parts of the Rocky Mountains, where grass and water are found during 

 the year ; and where magnificent natural scenery would compensate for the luxuries of 

 more civilized life. 



The Effect of Trees upon Health. 



Much has been said about the eucalyptus tree destroying malaria. All trees destroy 

 malaria. The Rev. R. J. Breckinridge bought a place on Elkhorn Creek, near Lexing- 

 ton, where the stagnant waters when low in summer and not shaded always produced 

 malaria. He told me that he planted sycamores and shaded the water holes, and the result 

 was the entire disappeai-ance of autumnal fevers. 



Trees and Climate. 



It has been denied that trees affect the rainfall or climate. How the sum of the 

 rainfall is during late years compared with the old times, I am not prepared to decide. 

 The able papers in this direction given by John R. Proctor and Robert Peter, of the 

 Kentucky Geological Survey, give us ground to say that when the rainfall is annually 

 below twenty inches successful agriculture need hardly be attempted, and this line of rain- 

 fall covers vast lands west of the Mississippi river, decreasing as you approach the Rocky 

 Mountains. And when agriculture fails, trees fail also. As at present advised I would 

 say that where there are no trees it is best to stay away. I move in the sphere of ex- 

 perience with more certainty. I remember when the forests were hardly broken here, 

 that springs of water were very frequent and perennial. The rivulets and creeks and 

 rivers had a perpetual flow ; these have now changed. The rivulets and creeks are now 

 dried up in summer, and the fish so often caught by me in earlier years are gone. Not 

 one spring in a thousand remains. Indian corn was generally planted in March, and the 

 rains and exhalations of moisture from the surroundings made crops successful every 

 year. Now, the destruction of the forests has lost to us that bed of leaves which was a 

 perpetual reservoir of water for springs and evaporation ; aided by the treading of the 

 hard surface, the rain-fall, if the same as of old, rushes off at once, sweeping the .soil into 

 the Mississippi delta. The dry winds absorb not only the ancient humidity of the air 

 but drink up the subsoil evaporation. So that our winters are longer, more changeable, 

 and unendurable. Corn can hai-dly be safely planted till late in April, and drouth too 

 often ruins all in spite of our best efforts. 



Now trees do influence rainfall within the limits of forests in a State like Kentucky, 

 where the rain is not precipitated by mountain heights, but by the meeting of warm 

 moist and cold winds. Here one neighbour has plenty of rain, and another scarcely any. 

 And, even if the rainfall should be the same for the whole State, the owners of forests 

 have reason to believe that these wind-breaks are favourable to rain eddies and rain- 

 bearing cui-rents of air. Here is room for future scientific inquiry and experience. One 

 thing I have found out by artificial landscape gardening : that trees planted many deep 



