172 ARBOR DAY 



the greatest number of evils; the lands they cover 

 are too rocky and high for agriculture, and can never 

 be made as valuable for any other crop as for the 

 present crop of trees. It has been shown over 

 and over again that if these mountains were to be 

 stripped of their trees and underbrush, and kept 

 bare and sodless by hordes of sheep and the innumer- 

 able fires the shepherds set, besides those of the 

 millmen, prospectors, shake-makers, and all sorts 

 of adventurers, both lowlands and mountains would 

 speedily become little better than deserts, compared 

 with their present beneficent fertility. During 

 heavy rainfalls and while the winter accumulations 

 of snow were melting, the larger streams would 

 swell into destructive torrents; cutting deep, rugged- 

 edged gullies, carrying away the fertile humus and 

 soil as well as sand and rocks, filling up and over- 

 flowing their lower channels, and covering the low- 

 land fields with raw detritus. Drought and bar- 

 renness would follow. 



In their natural condition, or under wise manage- 

 ment, keeping out destructive sheep, preventing 

 fires, selecting the trees that should be cut for lumber, 

 and preserving the young ones and the shrubs and 

 sod of herbaceous vegetation, these forests would be 

 a never-failing fountain of wealth and beauty. 

 The cool shades of the forest give rise to moist beds 

 and currents of air, and the sod of grasses and the 

 various flowering plants and shrubs thus fostered, 



