EFFECT OF PROTECTION. 227 



granulated as that of the prairie, but he who drains it thoroughly 

 will do himself and the country great service. 



The effect which trees have in protecting land from cold 

 winds, and influencing the humidity of the soil and the atmo- 

 sphere is another consideration well worthy of the attention of 

 farmers. It is well to know that the rivers of our country have 

 diminished in size as the forests have disappeared. Our mem- 

 ory runs back only half a century, but in this time the hills of 

 Berkshire have been stripped of their trees to furnish coal for 

 the furnaces and fuel for the locomotives and factories, and the 

 consequence is that where we plunged headlong into the Housa- 

 tonic while bathing in our boyhood, a frog is compelled to jump 

 obliquely, or he will strike his head against the stones. The 

 freshets are about the same as of old, but the water passes off 

 more rapidly from the land not being detained from evaporation 

 by the dense forests, nor from flowing into the streams by slow 

 percolation through the leaf mould. The drainage of our 

 swamps and moist lands has also aided the quick transit of the 

 rains and melted snows. The history of all nations proves that 

 with the destruction of the forests comes a less fall of rain and 

 often sterility. The land of Canaan, which in the days of the 

 patriarchs flowed with milk and honey, now shows but little 

 evidence of her ancient fertility. The valley of the Euphrates 

 was once famous for its exuberant vegetation, but the traveller 

 now looks in vain in this valley for the fertile soil, which form- 

 erly supported a teeming population. The coasts of Africa were 

 once green with forests, and in consequence of their destruction 

 we now see only barren sands. In France and other European 

 countries the same destruction of timber lands and consequent 

 barrenness can' be noticed. The wide wastes of Brittany and 

 the deserts of Champagne were, in the days of the invasion of 

 Gaul by Julius Csesar, covered with forests, and the conqueror 

 says they were among the most fertile lands. 



This subject has engaged the attention of the French govern- 

 ment, and laws have been made against the destruction and in 

 encouragement of the planting of trees, but in spite of law it 

 is found that about 75,000 acres of forest are annually cut over 

 and only 25,000 acres planted. In the last 100 years France 

 has diminished her forest lands by five millions of acres, nearly 

 one-fourth of her wooded surface, and a more stringent law has 



