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tion of 100 to 92-5, while the evaporation in the forest was 

 only one-third of the evaporation in the open. The result 

 of this is that the actual water received and retained from 

 the atmosphere is nearly fifty per cent, greater in a forest 

 than that received and retained by the plains. Numerous 

 observations have also established the fact that the forests, 

 as ready conductors of electricity, influence the current of 

 vapours, and that their action is felt far above the actual 

 height of the trees. Also that they condense the clouds 

 into rain by lowering the temperature, and act as bul- 

 warks against the severity of storms ; all this we know by 

 daily experience and observation. That want of forest 

 protection may have most fearful results has been so often 

 and sadly proved, and I need only remind you of the 

 disasters caused by great floods and long droughts in Spain, 

 South of France, Sicily, Chili, Peru, Mauritius, and many 

 other places, and you will grant the importance of the 

 question. In the Murcia valley the river was reduced to 

 a succession of stagnant pools, which during the summer 

 heat developed malaria, fever, and miasmatic exhala- 

 tions, detrimental to life and health, and furnishing but 

 scant and bad accommodation for the few remaining fish. 

 But as soon as the winter rains came, the river, in fact 

 nearly all the valley, became a raging torrent, destroy- 

 ing life and property, and all because the forests on the 

 ranges and mountains had been devastated, no legal 

 restrictions protecting them. As a question of national 

 economy, as a question of protection to life and property, 

 and as a question of prosperity, forest protection has 

 therefore the greatest claim to the attention of the Legis- 

 lature. But to us as a means of yielding a constant supply 

 of water, food, and shelter for the fishes, it has also great 

 significance. The forest, with its numberless roots and 



