ro8 FOREST PLAA TING. 



Byers, Editor of the Rocky Mountain News, in reply to 

 an inquiry on this subject, probably furnishes the most 

 rational explanation of the belief which is frequently 

 expressed. Few men have had as good opportunities of 

 observation as Mr. Byers, as he has lived for more than 

 twenty years between the Missouri and the Pacific; for 

 a very large portion of the time in the open air, and since 

 1856, with the exception of occasional interruptions, has 

 been furnishing meteorological reports to the Smithsonian 

 Institute. As the records have to be made daily, and at 

 certain hours, the effect could hardly fail to systematize 

 his observations and give much greater weight to his 

 opinion than to that of a merely casual observer. 



It will be seen that his idea of the effect of forest 

 planting, in modifying the climate by checking the winds, 

 whose "exhaustive power" is a chief cause of the aridity 

 of the Plains, corresponds with that which I have else- 

 where expressed. He admits that wherever trees are 

 planted and nourished into mature growth, " they ameli- 

 orate the climatic condition immediately around them," 

 and that the protection they afford arrests and preserves 

 humidity by checking evaporation. This corresponds 

 with the conclusions I have elsewhere quoted, viz : " that 

 within their own limits and near their own borders they 

 maintain a more uniform degree of humidity than is 

 observed in cleared grounds." If this is true, it follows 

 that a sufficient proportion of forest would secure the 

 desired effect, even though no increase was wrought in 

 the annual amount of rainfall." 



"With twenty years observation on the Plains I unhesitatingly give 



