104 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



Forests— Their Influence en Climate, fee. 



TiiK cupidity of man is no wiiore more incon- 

 siderately manifested, no where seen in a more 

 lamentable point of view, than in the injudicious, j 

 often wanton, destruction of the forests of a coun- 1 

 try. Reckless, and perhaps ignorantly so, of 

 consequences, he prostrates acre after acre, with 

 the sole view of hoarding up wealth, even when 

 he has already more perhaps than he is capable 

 ol enjoying. It is true, the immediate wealth of 

 the country is thereby increased, and we have 

 become a rich as well as a great nation ; but pos- 

 terity will suffer the fruits of our folly, or to say 

 the least, of our imprudence, and regret that we 

 did not ratlicr leave tliem wood than money — 

 Even we are already beginning to suffer the 

 fruits of our own cupidity and mismanagement ; 

 while, judging from present appearances, we 

 shall leave to posterity, not a wilderness, but a 

 desert. I am aware that these considerations 

 will have little influence on those who " live only 

 for themselves;" but certainly that man is not to 

 be envied, whose whole aim and object in living 

 are confined within the narrow limits of self. 



It is not my design to consider the subject ex- 

 clusively in i-elation to posterity, but rather to 

 offer a ^e\v remarks on the influence of forests 

 on climate, and to endeavor to show thai the cli- 

 mate of a country is essentially changed by the 

 destruction of its forests. The first effect there- 

 by produced is to destroy the uniformity, or 

 rather the equability, of a climate. In Germany, 

 the destruction of the forests, and the draining of 

 the lakes, it is said, have tended to render the 

 climate warmer. This increase of temperature 

 must evidently be confined to the summer sea- 

 son, for reasons which will appear in the sequel. 

 In the Cape de Verd Islands, the destruction of 

 the forests has tended to render the atmosphere 

 sultry ; and the once delightful climate of Greece, 

 of Italy, and of many other countries, has suffered 

 from the same cause. In our own country, who 

 does not remember when our climate was more 

 equable and uniform than at present. Our win- 

 ters were cold, it is true ; but they appeared and 

 disappeared in their proper season ; and the ex- 

 cessive heat of our summers was modified by 

 the cool and refreshing forest-breezes. Our 

 springs exhibited the gradual and beautiful tran- 

 sition from winter's cold to summer's heat, a phe- 

 nomenon now rarely witnessed in its pristine 

 beauty. 



Immediately connected with the effect upon 

 the atmosphere, and a consequence thereof, is its 

 effect upon the earth. In all countries where 

 observations have been made, it is found that the 

 springs and streams have greatly diminished, 

 and in some countries, almost entirely " dried 

 up." Such has been the etfect on those of the 

 Cape de Verd Islands, mentioned above, many 

 of which have, since the forests have been de- 

 stroyed, entirely disappeared ; and the writer 



well remembers the time when several streams 

 in one of our eastern counties of this State, so 

 lately as the early part of the present century, 

 were of sufficient size and uniformity to render 

 them valuable as mill-streams, and on which a 

 number of mills were erected, but which are 

 now entirely dry during a- large portion of the 

 summer, and of so little value for economical 

 purposes, that nearly all the mills have been suf- 

 fered to run to decay. Several springs also 

 which then furnished a plentiful supply of water 

 during most of the year, now seldom flow during 

 a large portion of the summer season. I might 

 also add the total or partial failure of wells, of 

 late so frequently complained of in different parts 

 of the country, especially at the east. Wells 

 that had never been known to fail before for per- 

 haps half a century, or more, have within the 

 last few years evinced symptoms of a decline un- 

 known in their early history. 



Another effect attributable in a great measure 

 to the same cause, is the frequent and severe 

 drouths witnessed almost every season in those 

 countries and states where the forests have been 

 extensively destroyed. Witness those terrible 

 drouths and consequent famines that have of 

 late years visited the Cape de Verd Islands. — 

 Witness also those that have lately visited our 

 own eastern states, and the eastern portions of 

 this state. I do not mean to say that these ef- 

 fects are to be attributed entirely to the destruc- 

 tion of the forests, but I have no doubt this is one, 

 and a principle cause. 



Another etfect attributable to the same cause, 

 and a plain proof of a change of climate, is the 

 difficulty of raising fruit and winter grain. Who 

 has not observed the great change in this respect ? 

 The writer well remembers the time when win- 

 ter wheat was raised in the eastern part of the 

 state, as abundantly and as easily as in the west- 

 ern. The farmer had only " to put his seed into 

 the ground," in the proper time, and he felt sure 

 of an abundant crop. No wheat, (or very little 

 and that with great difficulty,) is now raised in 

 that part of the state. This cannot- be attributed 

 to the exhaustion of the soil for two reasons : 

 first, because wherever the experiment has of 

 late been tried the fall growth is good, but it is 

 killed during the winter and spring ; and second, 

 because even on well manured, or entirely new 

 soil, the result is very nearly the same : the au- 

 tumn growth is abundant, but it cannot withstand 

 the severity of winter. The same effect begins 

 to manifest itself in tliis ])art of the state. In re- 

 gard to fruit, especially plums and peaches, every 

 one who has given attention to the subject, must 

 have observed the change. Plums have either 

 entirely disappeared from the older parts of the 

 country, or are raised with great difficulty, and 

 peaches are fiist following in train. These things, 

 as already stated, are not the effect of exhaustion 

 in the soil, but of wintry exposures; in other 



