16 THE BOOK OF FORESTRY 



Regarding the general effects of forest, geographers 

 maintain that at least twenty per cent of every country 

 should be covered with forest growth, and that the 

 desert conditions in Northern China and in parts of 

 Southern Asia are largely due to wholesale forest de- 

 struction carried on for centuries. In fact, some of 

 the fertile valleys mentioned in the Bible are now dry, 

 barren and desolate as a result of the reckless destruc- 

 tion of forest growth. 



Forests and Game. The effect of forest cover on the 

 presence of game and birds must be taken into account. 

 For a long 'time the campaign to protect our furred 

 and feathered friends was carried on solely by nature- 

 lovers, tender-hearted people who loved the birds and ani- 

 mals and preferred to keep the forest populous with its 

 glad-hearted inhabitants. Game conservation means more 

 than a kind heart nowadays, for recent investigations 

 indicate how close is the balance as maintained by 

 Dame Nature. If man, in his eagerness to shoot, de- 

 creases numbers of birds, insect attacks will almost 

 immediately increase in severity. In fact the spread 

 of the cotton boll weevil in the Southern States is ex- 

 plained by some as resulting from killing off the prairie 

 chicken. 



By examining the crops of the birds common to 

 orchard and forest it has been found that most of 

 them are of enormous service to the farmers and fruit- 

 growers by eating the scale or insects that prey upon 

 the gardens and orchards. The forest and woodlot 

 furnish ideal nesting and breeding-places and, as pre- 

 viously explained, the presence of forests on our water- 

 sheds is necessary in order to keep our trout brooks and 

 fish ponds full the year round. 



Some overzealous lovers of the woods think that they 



