16 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



forests are the reservoirs from which innumerable springs 

 and brooks are supplied, is unquestionable, and not only 

 are there hundreds of instances on record of springs and 

 brooks drying up in consequence of the destruction of 

 adjacent forests, but* there are few persons who have 

 reached middle life, that cannot call to mind more than 

 one such, with which he has had personal cognizance. If 

 the little streams cease to flow through the greater part 

 of the year, it must necessarily effect the larger ones. 

 In all regions where there is considerable snow in winter, 

 it remains much longer in the woods where it is shaded, 

 than upon the bare hills and mountains, hence, the more 

 continuous flow of brooks that have their source in 

 elevated forest covered regions. If the trees arc removed 

 from the hills, mountains, and elevated regions of a 

 country, the great masses of vegetable mould which ab- 

 sorbs, retains, and checks the raj^id descent of water from 

 the higher to the lower levels disappear, and instead of 

 water falling upon a sponge-like bed it strikes the bare 

 earth or rocks from which it slides, rushing onward with 

 constantly increasing velocity — forcing brooks and rivers 

 to overflow their banks, often causing great destruc- 

 tion of life and property. In the rapid movement of 

 water from higher to lower levels, it removes all the 

 lighter and more fertile parts of the soil, and this is 

 repeated until the mountains and hillsides have lost the 

 last remnant of a fertile soil, and become totally barren. 

 Such lands can never be of any great value for cultiva- 

 tion, and for this reason, if no other, they ought to be 

 reserved and kept covered with forests, as part of the 

 public domain. 



If forests tend to increase the rainfall of a country, as 

 has been quite generally claimed, it might seem paradox- 

 ical to assume that they could in any manner have the 

 least influence in preventing floods, for the more rain, 

 the niore water to escape and pass off in our streams, 



