PREVENTION OR MITIGATION OF DROUGHTS IN AUSTRALIA. 29 
(Acacia mollissima), and Ewcalypti of quick growth, were raised, 
merely by scattering during the earlier part of the cool season quan- 
tities of the seed, we should in due time have no longer to lament 
the destruction of vast flocks for want of fodder, and perhaps water, 
because the general climate of such districts would gradually become 
more humid. Under the shelter of timber vegetation herbage would 
continue to cover the soil now generally naked, even during summer, 
and from a heated bare surface there would no longer rise- that heat 
which now disperses every rain-cloud often for many a month, and 
sweeps in currents of burning winds over the continent. Moreover, 
the absorbing power of vegetation would prevent, to a large extent, the 
rain-water from flowing away into temporary channels, and perhaps even 
the sudden and transient floods after thunder-storms, Why the pas- 
toral tenants in districts subject to drought do not cause the seeds 
of trees, especially such as mentioned, to be gathered and sown, with 
a view of establishing belts of timber, appears strange. ^ The seeds 
of Acacia, Lophantha and Acacia mollissima might be gathered by tons 
at trifling expense, and sufficient seeds for 100,000 Zucalypti might 
be obtained for the value of a few head of cattle. If merely the flocks 
were kept away for a season from the spots on which the Acacia 
seedlings spring up, it would become an impossibility to annihilate 
the copses,'even by subsequent inroads of cattle, sheep, etc., which 
-indeed might to some extent browse on the young trees, and find 
in dry years additional food. Around Jerusalem, in Natal, in some of 
the South Sea Islands, in the high lands of India, and in Algeria, 
we have, by transmission of seeds, endeavoured to clothe the naked 
soil and ameliorate the climate. In Australia, however, almost no 
exertions are made in this direction. Not the least of the advan- 
tages of the measure which I urge anew consists in the augmenta- 
tion of the fertility of the land, by bringing, through the ever-active 
wer of vegetation, the latent and dormant alkalies, and earths and 
acids needed for the nutrition of plants, to the surface from strata 
into which the roots of trees will penetrate for food, to convey it to their 
foliage, and to leave these fertilizers with the decay of the leaves on the 
surface soil, to be stored up for subsequent vegetation. But the re- 
marks here offered apply not to Australia alone. Who ean look at a 
North African landscape without reflecting what changes an extensive 
Australian Acacia and Eucalyptus vegetation would effect on mountains 
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