IMPORTANCE OF SNOW. OTS 
The quantity of snow that falls in extensive forests, far from 
the open country, has seldom been ascertained by direct obser- 
vation, because there are few meteorological stations in or 
near the forest. According to Thompson,* the proportion of 
water which falls in snow in the Northern States does not ex- 
ceed one-fifth of the total precipitation, but the moisture de- 
rived from it is doubtless considerably increased by the atmos- 
pheric vapor absorbed by it, or condensed and frozen on its 
surface. I think I can say from experience—and I am con- 
firmed in this opinion by the testimony of competent observers 
whose attention has been directed specially to the point—that 
though much snow is intercepted by the trees, and the quantity 
on the ground in the woods is consequently less than in open 
land in the first part of the winter, yet most of what reaches 
the ground at that season remains under the protection of the 
wood until melted, and as it occasionally receives new supplies 
the depth of snow in the forest in the latter half of winter is 
considerably greater than in the cleared fields. Careful meas- 
urements in a snowy region in New England, in the month of 
February, gave a mean of 38 inches in the open ground and 
44 inches in the woods.t 
The general effect of the forest in cold climates is to assim- 
* THompson’s Vermont, Appendix, p. 8. 
+ As the loss of snow by evaporation has been probably exaggerated by 
popular opinion, an observation or two on the subject may not be amiss in 
this place. Itis true that in the open grounds, in clear weather and with 
a dry atmosphere, snow and ice are evaporated with great rapidity even when 
the thermometer is much below the freezing-point ; and Darwin informs us 
that the snow on the summit of Aconcagua, 23,000 feet high, and of course 
in a temperature of perpetual frost, is sometimes carried off by evaporation. 
The surface of the snow in our woods, however, does not indicate much loss 
in this way. Very small deposits of snow-flakes remain unevaporated in the 
forest, for many days after snow which fell at the same time in the cleared 
field has disappeared without either a thaw to melt it or a wind powerful 
enough to drift itaway. Even when bared of their leaves, the trees of a wood 
obstruct, in an important degree, both the direct action of the sun’s rays on 
the snow and the movement of drying and thawing winds. 
Dr. Piper (Trees of America, p. 48) records the following observations: ‘‘ A 
body of snow, one foot in depth and sixteen feet square, was protected from 
