FOREST DEMANDS 



Moisture. Moisture in the soil is as essential to tree- 

 growth as it is to any of our farm crops. We cannot control 

 the amount of moisture given us, but, to a great extent, we 

 can so care for the forests that rain, and the water from 

 melting snows, will not quickly flow off from the ground 

 on which the trees stand, but be more or less retained and 

 its presence in the soil of the forest extended over a much 

 greater period of time. The claim that the presence of 

 forests conduces to increased rainfall has never been con- 

 clusively proved. Only observations extending over a long 

 period of time, and over a reasonably large territory once 

 covered with forests and afterwards denuded, or the re- 

 verse, can determine that ; hence no such claim will be made 

 in this discussion. The effort will be to show what can and 

 should be done to utilize such water as may be granted us. 

 It is well known that when the mineral soil has no covering, 

 much of the water falling upon it runs off rapidly, and also 

 that evaporation of what may be absorbed by it soon takes 

 place. Observation has likewise shown that if the soil is 

 covered with a loose, spongy coating of vegetable matter, 

 neither run-off nor evaporation can go on so rapidly. 

 Neither can evaporation proceed so swiftly in the shade, or 

 where protected from the winds, as when the surface is ex- 

 posed to every breeze that sweeps over the land. 



We know that trees and other vegetation must be supplied 

 with water. Unless a supply can be furnished to the root 

 hairs and cells there will be no sap to carry the mineral 

 food to the leaves, and without that there can be no growth. 

 As a rule there is a mean of water supply which must be 

 maintained for most species to secure the best results, and 



