Notes and Gleanings. 109 



already sent to Michigan and Wisconsin for supplies. Of course, this supply 

 can last but a few years ; while the demand is immense, and ever on the in- 

 crease. In view of this state of things, are not our indiiTerence and apathy 

 in the highest degree alarming and criminal, while our forests are melting away 

 before the woodman's axe like frost before the rising sun 1 We, in our inno- 

 cence or ignorance, dream that these things will ever continue as they are. The 

 question of fuel, lumber, and timber, for the many wants connected with human 

 life, although a very serious and important one, is perhaps not the most seri- 

 ous and important one growing out of this subject. But the effect that the 

 wholesale destruction of our forests will have upon our climate, all our agri- 

 cultural and horticultural' products, and life itself, will be most disastrous. Then 

 will the hand of famine no more spare us than we do now the monarchs of the 

 wood. Every citizen, and especially every landholder, with a view to his duty 

 and pleasure, should earnestly study this subject, especially in relation to climate, 

 since proper climatic conditions are essential to life. Accurate and extensive 

 observations, and scientific investigations and historical records, clearly show 

 that forests do exert a controlling influence on the climate of every land, proba- 

 bly through the leaves condensing the moisture of the atmosphere ; also by shad- 

 ing the ground ; and, after they drop, in acting as a mulcli, retaining moisture in 

 the soil, as well as by the decay of the wood itself. Whatever the mode, the 

 fact is unquestioned, that, as forests abound, we have more springs and streams, 

 a more equal and copious rain-fall, are more free from sudden and extreme fluc- 

 tuations of temperature, and therefore from spring and autumn frosts ; and, of 

 course, since the success of our grain and fruit crops depends upon such exemp- 

 tions from frost at both ends of the season, it is not difficult to see how the 

 forest-tree, as well as fruit-tree, is "the tree of life to man." And here I regret 

 my inability and your limited, time to do this subject ample justice; but must, 

 at the risk of being tedious, introduce a few facts. To impress this point more 

 fully, " The Western Rural " gives an extract from an address by R. C. Kedzie 

 of Michigan Agricultural College. I give only a portion of it : " Thus Egypt, 

 from the earliest periods of history, has been spoken of as a rainless region ; 

 but, since Mehemet Ali has made his immense plantations, showers have become 

 frequent. The controlling influence of forest over rain-fall is also shown by the 

 fact, that countries once supplied with forests, and having abundant rains, and 

 immunity from frosts, their forests having been destroyed, have been scourged 

 by drought and frost till the forests were restored, when they once more became 

 fruitful ; or, if the inhabitants would not restore, the stern hand of famine threat- 

 ened to wipe out a race that would not reverence the order of Nature. Thus the 

 Cape de Verd Islands, so called from their greenness, have been stripped of their 

 forests by their improvident inhabitants : since which time they suffer terribly from 

 periodical droughts, no rain falling at times for three years ; and thirty thousani 

 inhabitants, or one-third of the population, have perished. Thus famine cuts 

 down the inhabitants as pitilessly as they cut down the protecting forests. It 

 has been proposed to replant the forests ; yet such is the ignorance and indolence 

 of the inhabitants, that little has been done : and it is probable that the entire 

 race niay be cut off, to be replaced by those who have learned that the ' tree of the 



