8 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 



desirable that the forests in the Highlands should be kept, and 

 not be cleared and put in farms. The tillage and pasturage of the 

 flats and of the level tops may be unobjectionable ; the slopes of 

 the mountains and the steep hillsides should not be cleared, but 

 be kept in woods. The need of all the water of this Highlands 

 region, within the next half century, by our cities and towns, 

 emphasizes the value of the water-supply which it has, and the 

 necessity of keeping it in large part in woodland for the quality 

 of the water as well as the quantity. The Pines Belt of Southern 

 New Jersey also has an important relation to the great question 

 of public water-supply, and the cities and towns on the Delaware 

 river and the sea-side towns on the ocean-front are yet to get 

 their water from this broad zone of the Coastal Plain, watered 

 by many streams now well fed from the .never-failing and 

 equable flow out the pure sands and gravels of these beds of late 

 geological age. The capacity of this South Jersey region to 

 supply water of excellent quality and with steady flow, makes it 

 valuable as a preserve or reservation for this use, aside from the 

 lumber and timber which might be produced, were it not for the 

 fires which consume trees and soil and leave barren sands 

 exposed to the dangers of moving by the wind. The forest 

 question is here all-important, but the production of wood as a 

 crop is not so essential to the conservation of the water-supply 

 as the maintenance of a cover of trees and shrubs. 



CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OF FORESTS. 



The relation of forests to climate is close and yet is not capa- 

 ble of expression in exact terms, because of the great variation 

 in the working of the agents which make our climates and their 

 great effects, in comparison with the lesser influence attributable 

 to the forest. On continental plains and near great oceans the 

 influences of great land-masses or of wide water-areas are so 

 great in their sweep that the relatively insignificant cover which 

 even a tall forest may afford is a small factor in the making of 

 climate. The islands in the ocean, e. g. Great Britain and 

 Ireland, have an insular climate which no extent of woodlands 

 could alter greatly. Our continental climate also is determined 

 by topographic and not by forestal conditions. The forest is, 

 however, a shade to the ground, and protects against what is 



