INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON CLIMATE 5 
This shows that at elevations of less than 300 feet the 
rainfall was the same as in the open country; but that with 
increasing elevations the rainfall in the forest exceeded 
more and more that in unforested localities; thus at 5000 
feet elevation the rainfall was 84 per cent more in the 
forest. 
The effect of local afforestation is to increase the rainfall 
in the district. This has been proved by observations taken 
in several localities, one being a moorland in Hanover, and 
another a considerable area in the southern steppes of Russia, 
which were planted with trees. Rain-gauges were placed 
inside the planted tracts and in the surrounding country ; 
and as the plantations were increased year by year, the 
rainfall recorded in them was found to be gradually 
augmented. 
3. The Influence of Forests upon Melting of Snow.—Prof. 
J. E. Church (5), Director of the Mount Rose Observatory, 
Nevada, U.S.A., has made interesting researches into the 
restraining effect of forests on the melting of snow. He has 
devised new methods of rapidly and economically measuring 
large areas of snow at high altitudes. In the Sierra Nevadas 
a larger quantity of snow accumulates in forests than on 
bare slopes, the forests that retain snow best being those 
with open narrow glades. There can be no longer any 
question of the direct influence of forests in delaying the 
melting of snow and in retarding stream-flow at the very 
time when floods normally occur. The forested slope 
contains an average water-content (the snow being converted 
into an equivalent amount of water) one-fifth greater than 
the bare but protected slope above it, nearly twice as much 
water as the cornice at the edge of the mountain, over 
fourteen times the moisture conserved by the wind-swept 
slope, and more than twice the average water-content of all 
three areas combined. Prof. Church advocates the planting 
of timber screens at strategic points on exposed slopes in 
order greatly to increase their capacity to store more snow. 
There are thus two types of reservoirs: the snow reservoirs 
formed by the forest to hold the snow in its original form, 
