HAPPY INDIA 71 



deforestation in Asia and Africa is due to a change 

 of climate. He says that in some countries and 

 latitudes and longitudes there is now less rain and 

 more heat than formerly, and claims that the desert 

 has destroyed the forest and not that the destruction 

 of forests has caused the desert. In this he especially 

 refers to Central Asia, Syria, and Palestine. 1 Mr. 

 Huntingdon has given great time and study to the 

 question, and I am inclined to accept his views as 

 true on that account. 



His views do not contradict the statement that 

 great harm has been done in many places by the 

 cutting down of the forests, and he would not dispute 

 the fact that trees will grow in a country if they 

 are protected, which would become desert if the 

 trees were allowed to be destroyed. The work of 

 the Indian Forestry Department has proved that 

 afforestation in that country is quite possible, and 

 that it can be done at the present time at a cost of 

 about 2 per acre that is the cost in the district 

 of Etawah in the United Provinces. From the 

 forests can be got not only timber for building and 

 a great variety of other purposes, but fuel for domestic 

 fires, fodder for cattle and horses, shelter from the 

 blazing sun, regulation of the flood of waters during 

 heavy rains, and protection of the soil from erosion. 



Of course it must be borne in mind that whilst 

 the forests may give wealth and protection to the 

 soil of other districts, it may be a place more liable 

 to malaria than a dry plain. Dr. Sir Ronald Ross 



* The Pulse of Asia. The Transformation of Palestine. 



