196 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



appearance. Little by little the tlronj!jbt extended, the flow of waters bocuino insig- 

 nificant, the mills stood klle or could be run only occasionally for a short time. 



Abont 1840 the municipal anthorities began to give information to the iio[M)lalion 

 relatiYo to tJioir true interests, and under the i)rotcction of a bettor supervision Mi» 

 work of replanting has been well managed, and the forest is to-day in successful 

 grosvth. 



In proportion as the replanting progressed, the precarious use of the mills ceased, 

 and tbe region of the water-courses was greatly modilied. They now no longer 

 swelled into sudden and violent floods, compelling the machines to stop, but the rise 

 did not begin until six or eight hours after the rains began. They rose steadily to 

 their maximum, and then subsided in the same manner. In short, the mills were no 

 longer obliged to stoj) vrork, and the water was always enough to run two fulling ma- 

 chines, and sometimes three. 



This example is remarkable in this, that all the other circumstances had remained 

 the same, and therefore we can only attribute to the reforesting the changes that 

 occurred, namely, diminution of the flood at the time of rain and an increase of its 

 flow daring other times. 



* 



EFFECT OF FORESTS UPON CLEVIATE. 



As to the influence of forests upon climate the replies to the circu- 

 lars are less satisfactory and of less value than they are in regard to the 

 effect of forests upon the flow of streams, as might have been expected. 

 It requires a nicer and more methodical observation to ascertain the 

 foimer than the latter. The shrinkage of streams and the alternations 

 of flood and drought are obvious to all who dwell near them, whether they 

 are intelligent enough to assign the proper causes of them or not. The 

 occasional testimony of the eye is all-sufficient. But it is only a higher 

 order of observers who are competent to give testimony as to variations 

 of climate and the extent to which such variations should be ascribed 

 to one cause or another. We shall have to wait, therefore, until we have 

 such observers in sufficient number and they have extended their ob- 

 servations over a sufficient length of time to eliminate errors which may 

 attach to particular instances before we shall have a body of evidence 

 which will be generally accepted as conclusive. Meantime we must de- 

 ])end upon the results of the observations which have been made by 

 competent persons in other countries where the study of forestry lias 

 long been prosecuted and is not a novelty of the day. We have some 

 truly scientific observers in regard to this as well as other subjects. 

 They are doing useful work. But we need many more for the wide ex- 

 panse of our country, not only in connection with our colleges and sci- 

 entific academies, but in all our cities and larger, not to say smaller, 

 towns. It is only by the careful comparison of a multitude of such ob- 

 servations, reaching through many years, that we can- arrive at satis- 

 factory conclusions. No agricultural college at this day should be re- 

 garded as doing its proper work, or as worthy of tb,e name it bears, 

 which has not a chair for instruction in forestry, in connection with 

 which systematic observations in regard to the influence of forests upon 

 climate are made. 



EXTENT AND SUCCESS OF TREE PLANTING. 



Eeturns from the circulars making inquiry on the subject show a 

 gratifying increase of interest in the subject of tree planting. As 

 might be expected, this awakened interest is most general and widely 

 extended in those Western States and Territories where the natural sup- 

 ply of trees is most deficient. In Nebraska, with the helpful stimulus 

 of Arbor Day, which had its origin there, it is reported that 7,000,000 

 trees were planted in a single year and on a given day, and already the 



