28 HAND-BOOK OF TREE-PLANTING. 



kota. On the slopes of California and Neva, 

 da, for example, the removal of the trees, which 

 has taken place with such rapidity, is threat 

 ening great disaster to those portions of the 

 country. Fires have been allowed to ravage 

 the forests with hardly any effort to prevent 

 or to check them. And, as though this were 

 not enough, the young growth that springs up 

 is destroyed by the flocks of sheep which are 

 turned loose in it for pasture; and even the 

 mature forest is often fired and consumed in 

 order that grass may take its place for the sup- 

 port of the sheep which can not find adequate 

 pasturage in the dry valleys and plains below. 

 This very destruction of the woods, by lessen- 

 ing and making more irregular the flow of the 

 streams, renders the irrigation of the dry plains 

 below less practicable, and without irrigation 

 they are nearly if not quite worthless for all 

 agricultural purposes. Sparsely wooded at the 

 best, and needing every encouragement to make 

 good the deficiency of trees if possible, Cali- 

 fornia has lost one fourth of her forests during 

 the brief period since she became one of the 

 States of our Union. If there is any one duty 



