430 CONDITIONS AFFECTING AGRICULTURAL PROSPERITY. 



falls on the average, a superabundance of water for maturing the 

 crops. 



But the rain-fall in different years is very variable; seasons of 

 drought and great floods occur, and in any one season, the rain is 

 very unequally distributed in different sections. A dry spring, as in 

 1873, cuts off one half the crop through the moister parts of the 

 valley, and totally destroys the crops in the southern part, except 

 where irrigation is practiced. From all these facts it therefore ap 

 pears to be sufficiently established, that some system of controlling 

 the waters of precipitation is needed, and that with such a system 

 annual crops may be secured. 



No other means of equalizing the rain-fall will ever take the 

 place of that which nature has provided in her forests. The 

 relations of forests to the public welfare are too vast and too 

 important to be presented here. The most magnificent schemes 

 of irrigation will prove but temporary measures of relief, un 

 less our existing forests are spared, or an equivalent of their 

 value as condensers and equalizers of moisture obtained by 

 artificial planting. 



Another great drawback upon the agriculture of California 

 is the lack of timber for fences and fuel. The former costs 

 from three to six hundred dollars a mile, according to the dis 

 tance from market and the quality of the fence made; and 

 though comparatively little fuel is needed in this mild climate, 

 the lack of it is a serious item of inconvenience and expense. 

 In the neighborhood of Los Angeles, and upon the tule lands, 

 the willow answers an excellent purpose for hedges, and soon 

 supplies firewood and charcoal; grape cuttings are also exten 

 sively used; but no more promising outlay of labor or capital 

 is found in the State, than the artificial production of wood 

 in large quantities. Happily for us, Australia has given us 

 trees, of marvelous strength, size, durability, and rapidity of 

 growth, in the eucalyptus or sweet gum family, of which not 

 less than thirty-five useful and ornamental species are now ac 

 climated. Trees are indispensable to break the force of the 

 northers, those destructive winds which are the dread of farm 

 ers in the Great Valley. 



We gladly give space to the valuable suggestions of George 

 May Powell, Chairman of the American Institute Committee 

 011 Forests and Inland Navigation : 



Both ancient and modern history, as well as philosophy, unite in 

 ascribing the depletion and the disappearance of streams to the dis- 



