16 WOKCESTEll COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



interior of the State was almost an unbroken expanse of woodland ; 

 now how rapidly the forests are disappearing under the injudicious 

 use of the axe. It is probable that the removal of so much standing 

 wood has had a bad inlluence on the climate and surface of the earth. 

 It is estimated that forests, in order to keep up tlie right conditions of 

 soil and climate, should occupy one quarter of the land. To quote 

 from a friend who made a study of the subject, ' they affect the tem- 

 perature, the movement of air-currents, the character and succession 

 of the seasons, the amount of rain and the manner of its fall, as well 

 as its action for good or harm upon the soil.' " 



The intlueuce of forests in protecting the water-supply is well illus- 

 trated in the case of Greece. In ancient days she possessed 7,500,000 

 acres of forest. To-day she has hardly 2,000,000 acres, and the 

 scarcity of water and the injurious climatic effects are traceable to the 

 destruction of the trees. In France when the forests had been felled 

 or destroyed by fire the government expended more than a million 

 dollars annually for their restoration. Palestine, two thousand 

 years ago, was a well wooded country, now it is mostly sterile and 

 desolate. Its forests are hewn down, its soil washed by the torrents 

 of a thousand winters, its river courses dried. In the centre of the 

 great desert of Sahara, ChampoUion, the French explorer, found traces 

 of old rivers and tree-stumps buried six feet deep in burning sands. 

 "And so," he says, "this desert may once have been a region of 

 groves and fountains, and the abode of happy millions. The hand of 

 man has produced this desert, and I verily believe every other desert 

 on the face of the earth." 



I should like to quote many other instances of the disastrous eff"ects 

 of forest destruction nearer home, some of which are mentioned in Mr. 

 Wilson Flagg's little book published some years ago, called the "By- 

 Ways of New England" ; but I will not take your time, which may be 

 more jn'olitably occupied. I will only add that I think the preserva- 

 tion of the forests is a subject deserving the consideration of every 

 person who has the well-being of future generations at heart, or who 

 wishes to retain the beauty and comfort of the State we are so proud 

 of. To accomplish this end, a State Forestry Commission is of the 

 utmost importance. G. R. C. 



Some statistics are given in these reports comparing the crops on 

 these irrigated lands, in the arid regions, with those of the most pro- 

 ductive regions in the rain belt, showing a higher average in the 

 former; in the cultivation of fruits especially, the irrigated lands give 

 a most favorable comparison. On one fruit farm in the arid region, 

 the income for 1890 was from $211 to $600 per acre. Much attention 

 is now paid to irrigation in parts of Europe, but I will mention only a 

 single instance: Below the city of Milan, in Lombardy, 22,000 acres 

 of grass land irrigated by the waters of the river, a tributary to the 

 Po, which carries the sewage of the city, yield from 8 to 10 tons of 

 hay to the acre, while some separate meadows produce a crop of 18 



