STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 389 



The next on the program was a paper by Mr. Barrett. 



BENEFITS OF FORESTS. 



By J. 0. Barrett, Broiuns Valley. 



As a gui<le to right conclusions, let us for a moment consider 

 Nature's law of equilibrium between the animal and vegetable crea- 

 tions. The animal breathes out carbonic acid, mixture of oxygen and 

 carbon; under the intervention of solar rays, separating and purifying 

 the compound, the animal appropriates the oxygen and the plant ap- 

 propriates the carbonaceous portion. Thus the two great divisions of 

 nature reciprocally support each other. Obviously, then, that coun- 

 try is safest to live in and promises the surest profits for industry, 

 where, other things being equal, the animal and vegetable creations 

 mutually balance each other. It is no doubt true that our atmosphere 

 holds its gasses in certain specific proportions over the entire surface 

 of the earth, but it is also true that soils, forests, water and the con- 

 figurations of a country efi'ect the chemical condition of the atmos- 

 phere, that some localities may generate more of one kind of acid than 

 another. For instance, where there is a large quantity of decaying 

 vegetable matter, or gasseous fissures at or in bog lands, the immediate 

 atmosphere will be unduly charged with carbonaceous gasses. An- 

 other fact is patent, that even in localities where the acids are in 

 chemical balance, volume with volume, or weight with weight, they 

 cannot be appropriated for the objects desired unless their quality is 

 adaptable. Let me make this plain: 



PHEMICALLY CONSIDERED. 



Here is an acre of ground amply manured. It exhales at least one 

 hundred and fifty cubic feet of carbonic acid every twenty-four hours. 

 Are we yet sure chemical conditions are all right for a successful crop? 

 If the raw material of the soil, such as lime, selicia, iron, magnesia, 

 soda, is crude and non-vitalized; if the manure is "fire fanged," neu- 

 tralizing its ammonial properties; if the genuine excrement is heavily 

 mixed with wild, dry grasses, retarding decay, the crop will be a com- 

 parative failure. The nitrogen in such a manure pile, or in the fer- 

 tilizer you buy for a soil dressing, may not be any better than a stone 

 to feed a crop. Success hinges upon quality in the quantity. The 

 primary elements of the original rocks, composing the constituents of 

 the soil, must first undergo innumerable triturations and transposi- 



