228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



recently been enacted to preserve the forests. That the total 

 rain-fall and — what is of more consequence so far as the climate 

 and fertility of a country are concerned — the frequency of show- 

 ers, are greater on a well wooded tract, than on sandy soils des- 

 titute of trees, is well established, for an associate on this com- 

 mittee, Mr. Thompson of Nantucket, says he has often noticed the 

 showers falling on the wooded parts of that island while the de- 

 nuded sandy portions were left unrefreshed. If we could once 

 cover the desert of Sahara with forests or even with grass to cool 

 the air, we should expect the showers to descend there, bringing, 

 as they do everywhere, fertility to the soil. The foliage of 

 trees and grasses defends the soil from the sun's rays, and thus 

 prevents the ground from becoming heated, while a warm sandy 

 soil radiates its heat and thus hinders the condensation of the 

 moisture of the atmosphere and the descent of refreshing show- 

 ers. Not even dew is deposited on sandy soil, and the contrast 

 between Gideon's dewy fleece and the surrounding dry land was 

 not greater, than between such a soil and one covered with 

 green herbage on a cool night in August. 



We therefore recommend to the farmers of Massachusetts to 

 spare the trees, if they wish to encourage the descent of the fer- 

 tilizing showers. On many of our old rocky pastures, where 

 the vegetable and saline matter has been slowly diminishing for 

 centuries, trees will grow spontaneously if cattle will allow them, 

 and no better treatment of these pastures can be recommended 

 than to let them grow up to forests. The soil will not only 

 thus be restored to its virgin fertility, but the climate will be 

 greatly ameliorated. In the western part of Massachusetts, we 

 find many of our old pastures growing up to white pines, and 

 we hail their growth as the dawn of a more healthy era. The 

 aroma of a pine forest is full of healing virtue to the lungs, and 

 we confidently expect that the form of consumption, which our 

 physicians call phthisis, will decrease as these pine forests in- 

 crease. There is no better tree than the white pine to plant 

 between the house and the barn-yard, to prevent the passage of 

 all effluvia, or on the north-west side of the house to keep off 

 the cold winds of winter, or on the west and north of the garden 

 and orchard, so that the vegetables and fruits may bask in the 

 sunshine undisturbed by the gales of summer. 



We are conscious of not having done justice, in this short 



