L2 



ON RAINFALL IN A WOODED COUNTRY 



of any other country ! If we even assume the calculation of Col. 

 Sir Henry James, E.E.. chief of the Ordnance Survey Department, 

 who estimates that in England alone tha proportion of wooded area 

 is equal to 2h per cent., we still find a considerahle deficiency as 

 compared with similiar areas of other countries, with the one ex- 

 ception already noticed. Thus we find — 



Country. 



Total Areas. 



Wooded lands 

 Areas. 



France, j 



f 

 Germany, < 



Austria, I 



Denmark, \ 



129,216,000 



imp. acres 

 135,738,240 



acres 



144,799,840 



acres 



6,849,812 



Dan. tbndes 



21,966,720 



acres 

 * 



15,850,837 



acres 



319,102 

 Dan. tondes 



Percentage under 

 Wood. 



tor 17 per cent. 

 # 



or 1 1 per cent, 

 [•or 6 "61 per cent. 



Therefore it appears that the importance of the subject now under 

 consideration has forced itself upon State notice ; and in many 

 countries of the continent, — as, for example, in Germany, France, 

 Hanover, and now also in Italy, — as it is well known, schools of 

 forestry exist, and laws are rigidly enforced in relation to the con- 

 servancy of woods. Large tracts of fertile acres, producing the 

 finest cereal crops in the world, now flourish in Hungary, where 

 formerly arid sterility prevailed. This has been brought about by 

 the judicious distribution of plantations in zones, and in large 

 masses in the district of the Vosges ; and even in our own Indian 

 empire, so important is it now deemed to conserve the forests of the 

 different provinces, that it forms a separate department of imperial 

 control ; and, according to the words of the present Under Secretary 

 of State for India (Mr Grant Duff), " had we known thirty years 

 ago what the importance of forest conservancy is for India, L. 30,000 

 per annum, now requisite for irrigation, would have been saved to 

 the Indian exchequer;" and we may be permitted to add, much 

 of the misery and starvation caused by periodical rice famines 

 would have been avoided. The soil of the Himalayas is very similar 

 to that of a great part of the area of Scotland. The difference consists 

 in climate chiefly, and if the proper distribution of wood and its 

 conservancy can modify and ameliorate the fickle climate of a large 

 portion of India, or at least is considered conducive to such bene- 



* Owing to the recent amalgamation of the German Empire these figures 

 cannot yet be quoted. 



