85 



wind or by the axe of the moujik, grounds cut over and more or less recently 

 cleared for cultivation. There is probably not a single district in Russia which 

 has not to deplore the ravages of man or fire, those two great enemies of 

 Muscovite sylviculture. This is so true, that clear sighted men already foresee 

 a crisis which will become terrible, unless the discovery of great deposits of some 

 new combustible, as pit coal or anthracite, shall diminish its evils." 



Hohenstein, who was long professionally employed as a forester in Russia, 

 describes the consequences of the general war upon the woods in that country as 

 most disastrous and as threatening still more ruinous evils. The river Volga, 

 the life artery of Russian internal commerce, is drying up from this cause, and 

 the great Muscovite plains are fast advancing to desolation like that of Persia. 



ECONOMY OF WOODLANDS. 



The action of the forest, considered merely as a mechanical shelter to grounds 

 lying to the leeward of it, might seem to be an influence of too restricted a char- 

 acter to deserve much notice, but many facts concur to show that it is a most 

 important element in local climate. Experience, in fact, has shown that mere 

 rows of trees, and even much lower obstructions, are of essential service in 

 defending vegetation against the action of the wind. Hardy proposes planting 

 in Algeria, belts of trees at the distance of 100 metres from each other, as a 

 shelter, which experience has proved to be useful in France. 



In the report of a committee appointed in 1836 to examine an article of the 

 forest code of France, Araero observes : " If a curtain of forest on the coast of 



CT 



Normandy and of Brittany were destroyed, these two Provinces would become 

 accessible to the winds from the west, to the mild breezes of the sea. Hence a 

 decrease of the cold of the winter. If a similar forest were to be cleared on the 

 eastern border of France, the glacial east wind would prevail with greater strength, 

 and the winters would become more severe. Thus the removal ot a belt of wood 

 would produce opposite effects in the two regions." 



It is thought in Italy that the clearing of the Appenines has very materially 

 affected the climate of the valley of the Po. It is asserted inLe Alpi checingono 

 I' Italia that : " In consequence of the felling of the woods on the Appenines, 

 the sirroco prevails greatly on the right bank of the Po, in the Parmesan territory, 

 and in a part of Lornbardy ; it injures the harvests and the vineyards, and some- 

 times ruins the crops of the season." 



According to the same authority, the pinery of Porto, near Ravenna which 

 is twenty miles long, and is one of the oldest pine woods in Italy having been 

 replanted with resinous trees after it was unfortunately cut, has relieved the city 

 from the sirroco to which it had become exposed, and in a great degree restored its 

 ancient climate.* 



The local retardation of spring so much complained of in Italy, France, and 

 Switzerland, and the increased frequency of Jate frosts at that season, appear to 

 be ascribable to the admission of cold blasts to the surface, by the felling of the 

 forests, which formerly both screened it as by a wall and communicated the 



*The following well attested instance of a local change of climate is' probably to be referred to the influ- 

 ence of the forest as a shelter against cold winds. To supply the extraordinary demand for Italian iron, 

 occasioned by the exclusion of English iron in the time of Napoleon I, the furnaces of the valleys of Ber- 

 gamo were stimulated to great activity. ' ' The ordinary production of charcoal not sufficing to feed the 

 cfurnaces and the forges, the woods were felled, the copses cut before their time, and the whole econ- 

 omy of the forest was deranged. At Piazzatorre there was such a devastation of the woods, and consequently 

 such an increased severity of climate, that maize no longer ripened. An association, formed for the purpose, 

 effected the restoration of the forest and maize flourishes again in the fields of Piazzatorre." Report by G. 

 Kosa, in II Politecnico, Dicembre, 1861, p. 614. 



