Notes and Gleanings. Ill 



tracts of forests in some districts, and correspondingly large, clear tracts in others, 

 as smaller tracts more evenly distributed over the entire land. Probably the 

 proportion of forest to the entire land should not be less than thirty per cent in 

 this region, or districts still nearer the centre of the United States, or more 

 nearly midway between the oceans : nearer large bodies of water, a less propor- 

 tion would answer. In the absence of extended and accurate observations, we 

 cannot be definite ; tliough no doubt an unalterable law governs this whole 

 matter as all matters, according to which, at some future day, all other sur- 

 rounding influencing causes can be determined in kind and degree (such as 

 amount of water, and how situated). Such being the fact, when the exact pro- 

 portion between forest and entire surface is known, the exact amount of rain-fall 

 and other results may be mathematically demonstrated. G. P. Marsh says, " In 

 1750, Mirabeau estimated that there should be retained in France thirty-two 

 per cent of land in wood." The forests were destroyed with most disastrous 

 effects upon the general prosperity, far faster than his estimated allowance ; and 

 the percentage was reduced far below that proportion. "It is evident that the 

 I^roportion of forest in 1750, taking even Mirabeau's large estimate, was not 

 much too great for permanent maintenance; though doubtless the distribution 

 was so unequal, that it would have been sound policy to fell the woods 

 and clear the land in some provinces, while large forests should have been 

 planted in others. . . . Since writing the above, I found the view I have taken 

 of this point confirmed by the careful investigations of Reutzsch, who esti- 

 mates the proper proportion of woodland to entire surface at twenty-three per 

 cent for the interior of Germany ; and supposes near the coast, where the air is 

 supplied with humidity by evaporation from the sea, it might safely be reduced 

 to twenty per cent. The due proportion for France would considerably exceed 

 that for the German States." Now, if the German States require twenty-three 

 per cent midway between the North Sea, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean, what is 

 demanded by the great area between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, 

 almost without water from the Gulf of California to the Polar Sea .'' — a region of 

 country almost destitute of forests and water, and therefore subject to extremes 

 of heat and cold beyond any other portion of this continent. The thermometri- 

 cal observation made at Cantonment, Leavenworth, during many years, fully 

 confirms this point ; for at no other point in the United States where similar 

 observations were made were those changes as sudden and severe. The terrible 

 droughts and the great loss of life by cold on those plains are also to the same 

 point. And now, in view of all the impending dangers to our country, — for we 

 have already entered upon and are far advanced and rapidly travelling the road 

 which will lead to the same ruin, — forests are disappearing all over our country. 

 From the same causes, the New-England States are already suffering in many 

 ways, and the evils with their causes extending southward, westward, and north- 

 ward. Our prairies are always subject to great extremes of temperature, of 

 winds and droughts, of floods and frosts ; and as the great forests east, west, and 

 north-west of us, are being rapidly exhausted, all these effects will be greatly 

 and continually intensified. Is it difficult, then, to see both our duty and pleas- 

 ure in tree-culture ? Let us plant for fruit, for timber, and for ornament, but, 



