FOREST PLANTING. 



extended to half an acre more next year ; to an additional three- 

 quarters of an acre the next, and so on. Could forest planting be 

 made general it might in time affect the laws of climate over a wide 

 area might possibly increase perceptibly the rain fall but I have 

 no hope of that. The farmer, or the neighborhood, may greatly 

 improve his or their surroundings, but the general laws of the universe 

 can hardly be changed by man's feeble hand. 



" I have traveled nearly a thousand miles south of here among 

 fields and vineyards that have been cultivated for three hundred 

 years ; have witnessed their wonderful productiveness and seen above 

 and beyond the irrigating ditches that watered them the most 

 parched and utter barrenness. Even the mountain sides produce no 

 trees. The valleys are densely populated, and if rain was to follow 

 man, certainly it would have come to bless them." 



Without seeking further evidence, or discussing the 

 question, whether the effect of forests is to create a 

 change of climate by electrical or chemical action, or is 

 merely mechanical, it is obvious that they do render cul- 

 tivation possible, and exert an influence in retaining 

 humidity in their immediate vicinity. It follows that the 

 extent of this influence will be proportionate to that of 

 the area on which forest growth is secured, and this is 

 the most encouraging fact connected with the subject, 

 since it relieves us of the appalling necessity of waiting 

 till a large portion of the whole area is covered with 

 forest before hoping for a perceptible change. 



It is hardly possible for the mind to grasp the idea of 

 so vast an extent as is comprised in the area of the great 

 Plains ; and it is idle to talk of attempting within any 

 appreciable time to plant trees enough on a tract which 

 in its transverse section is five hundred miles across, to 

 produce a climatic change. But it is certain that every 



