RE-STOCKING DENUDED WOODLANDS. 193 



lower edge of the furrow, thus forming a level wall over 

 which the surplus water collected in the furrow or trench 

 will slowly run downward, to be caught up by the next 

 furrow below, unless absorbed by the soil over which it 

 is flowing. 



This operation will be a great help for raising trees 

 on steep slopes, by planting them in the middle of the 

 ridges, alongside the trenches. Should the ridges be 

 larger, and have more the shape of a terrace, it is advisable 

 to open in the middle of the terrace, a furrow and plant 

 therein the trees, thus forming an additional obstruction 

 against the waters sweeping down into the lower grounds. 

 The fast-growing root system of the trees and bushes 

 planted upon the mellow ridges will help greatly to 

 strengthen the latter, and thus increase the power of 

 resisting the destructive effects of the water currents. * 



Formerly, running down the denuded slope, these 

 waters began to wear out little ruts, then furrows, 

 gulches, channels and, finally, enlarged in width and 

 depth till they became enormous torrents. But treated 

 in the stated way, their force is broken, and they filter 

 quietly into the soil or flow down, impeded by so many 

 obstructions that they cannot do harm. The trenches 

 form also, during the winter, receptacles for the dead 

 leaves of the shrubs and trees and, owing to the half- 

 decayed condition of these leaves, retain, during the 



* This mode of cultivation of the soil might sometimes be used ad- 

 vantageously to retrieve the great damages caused to many hilly farms 

 of our State by the improvidence of former owners who stripped the 

 steep hill-sides on the farm of their trees, in order to enlarge the pas- 

 tures. As such fields usually, by nature, are not rich, and only kept 

 fertile by the shade of the trees grown thereon and by the accumula- 

 tion of then* leaves, they became, when denuded of trees, infertile and 

 barren ; whereupon the loose surface soil was washed down by the 

 rain into the lower-situated grounds, covering them with sand and 

 gravel. 



