January 25, 1894] 



NA TURE 



;o5 



the soil-moisture or the water-supply to the filtrating action of 

 belts of woodland. 



S. As regards the A!;riatltural Productive Capacity of Neigh- 

 bouring Tracts, and the National-Economic Eject on the Soil 

 generally. - From an agricultural standpoint, a dry season is 

 much preferable to a low temperature and excessive rainfall. 

 In the former case the crops, although they may be somewhat 

 scanty, are invariably of superior quality. A wet season may 

 produce abundant crops, but they are generally of low quality. 



With regard to the influence of forests on the aqueous 

 precipitations throughout central Europe, Prof, Endres makes 

 the following remarks^ : — 



"The question whether woodlands can influence the rainfall 

 is one of the most important from a national-economic point of 

 view. Even if this could be distinctly aftirmed, the beneficial 

 action of forests would only be established in the rarest cases, 

 for throughout central Europe at present the number of too 

 wet years exceeds that of dry years. In districts where the 

 rainfall is over 40 inches, any increase is undesirable^' For 

 agriculture very dry years are on the whole less disastrous than 

 extremely wet years. The precipitations of any district are 

 influenced mainly by the position of the mountain ranges with 

 reference to the cardinal points of the compass, by its elevation 

 above sea-level, and its distance from the sea." 



But, as the American investigations prove {idem. p. 13), 

 "no influence upon the general climate which depends upon 

 cosmic causes can in reason be expected from a forest cover. 

 Only local modifications of climatic conditions may be antici- 

 pated, but these modifications, if they exist, are of great prac- 

 tical value, for upon them rest success or failure in agricultural 

 pursuits, and comfort or discomfort of life, within the given 

 cosmic climate. The same condition must be insisted upon with 

 reference to forest influences upon waterflow, which can exist 

 only as local modifications of water conditions, which are 

 due in the first place to climatic, geologic, and topographic 

 conditions." 



Even so early as in Roman tinies it was recognised that too 

 great a clearance of woodland areas brought undesirable changes 

 in the physical conditions of Italy, and affected the welfare of 

 the inhabitants. That the destruction of the ancient forests 

 throughout Great Britain and Ireland, to such an extent that 

 only 38 per cent of the total area can now be classified as 

 woodlands {vide Parliamentary Report on "Forestry," dated 

 August 5, 18S7), was not followed by such disastrous climatic 

 changes as were occasioned by similar causes throughout the 

 Landes, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Russia, and many parts of 

 India, we owe entirely to our insular position with its moist 

 climate, and to the happy effects wrought by that portion of the 

 Gulf Stream which reaches our western and southern shores. 



Early in the present century, for example, ihe Agricultural 

 Society of Marseilles reported that in consequence of the reck- 

 less destruction of the forests after the revolution of 1789 : — 



"The winters are colder,the summers hotter, and the bene- 

 ficial spring and autumn showers no longer fall ; the Uveaune, 

 flowing from east to west, rushes down in flood with the least 

 rain, carrying away its banks and flooding the richest pasturage, 

 while, for nine months of the year, its bed lies dry owing to the 

 drying-up of the streams." 



To a similar cause also Prof. Geffcken (in The Speaker of 

 January 6, 1893) attributes the Russian famine of 1892 in the 

 following terms : — 



" We speak of the deficit (in the Russian Budget) of 1893 

 as certain, and it is easy to show that it will be so. The prin- 

 cipal cause of the present dearth is the drought during the last 

 spring and early summer, and this absence 0/ rain is greatly 

 due to the devastation of the forests. The area formerly covered 

 with timber was enormous, the woods belonging to the Crown, 

 to the great landed proprietors, and to the village communities. 

 But the means of transport were then so imperfect and costly 

 that only in the neighbourhood of large rivers did the felling 

 of timber pay. This changed with the construction of railways 



\ " Hygienische Bedeutung der Waldluft und des Waldbodens " in vol. 

 xiii. of " Forschungen auf dem Geblete der Agricultur-Physik," edited by 

 Prof. WoUny, iSgo. p. 607. 



- This is a point of very great importance with reference to the proposals 

 of Mr. Munro Ferguson, M.P. {Contevipoarv Revieiu for October 1S92, 

 pp.521, 522), for planting up the Highlandsof Scotland, and Dr. Macgregor's 

 three ques'ionsin the House on the same subject on November 13, December 

 :2, and December 19, 1893. For if 'here be already any tendency towards 

 more rainfall during the summer months than is good for agricultural crops, 

 an extensive increase in the acreage of woodlands in such vicinities is not 

 desirable. 



and the abolition of serfdom ; the former gave the possibility 

 of selling with profit, and the peasants abandoned their woods 

 to speculators for what they thought a good price, little think- 

 ing of the future ; the larger proprietors followed their example ; 

 the purchase money was spent in drink and luxurious living, 

 and no one thought of replanting. Too late has the Govern- 

 ment issued a laut for the protection oj jorests. Such a devasta- 

 tion going on for 20 years not only exhausts a source of zvcalth, 

 but has also other bad consequences. When the country is de- 

 prived of its trees, the earth is dried up and crumbles from the 

 hills ; the water coming down from heaven cannot be kept 

 back as is the case with the woods, which act as a sponge, but 

 rushes in torrents into the rivers and disappears in the sea, and 

 the consequence is a gradual diminution of the fertility of the 

 soil and the disappearing of numerous brooklets and small 

 rivers, to help the larger ones show a low water-mark, which 

 proves prejudicial to the navigation." 



This view is confirmed by the special correspondent of the 

 Times (vide article "Through Famine-stricken Russia" in 

 issue of April 18, 1892), who writes : — 



"I have now travelled over most of the famine-stricken 

 provinces, and I have been struck by the sameness of the picture. 

 Everywhere reckless extravagance meets the eye, the forests 

 have been cut away wantonly, the rivers are neglected, the 

 climate is ruined." 



Such also appears to have been the opinion of Major Law, 

 Commercial Attache to the British Embassy at St. Petersburg, 

 as expressed in his " Report on Agriculture in the South-Eastern 

 Provinces of European Russia," commented on in a leading 

 article of the Times of September 17, 1892, in the following 

 words : — 



" It is said that this gigantic natural tillage farm (i.e. the 

 ' black-soil ' region) was formerly hedged in by belts of forest, 

 which served the twofold purpose of sheltering it from the 

 desert winds and of increasing the humidity of the climate. It 

 is certain that these forests do not now exist, and that the 

 black-soil country is often scourged by devastating blasts from 

 the steppe, and not infrequently baked by prolonged droughts. 

 The desert winds pile the snow in drifts into winter, which become 

 the source of destructive torrents jin the spring. In summer 

 the same winds are so fierce and arid that in the space of a few 

 hours they wither the corn as it stands, while, when they are 

 laden with sands, I hey smite the soil itself with perpetual 

 barrenness." 



All writers, indeed, who have recently published views en 

 this subject, seem agreed as to the main causes of the recent 

 Russian famine.^ 



In order to obtain the full national-economic benefits that are 

 derivable from woodlands, the areas reserved as forests or 

 planted up should be scattered over the face of the country as 

 equally as possible. In all countries where the population is 

 thin, and primeval forest is siill to be found, measures 

 with this end in view can easily be carried out without inflict- 

 ing any apparent hardship on the existing community. But 

 wherever danger from famine is apt to recur from time to time, 

 it would at the same time seem to be worthy of consideration 

 whether it would not be wise to expropriate tracts of the poorer 

 and higher land here and there, and plant them up on a well- 

 considered scheme lor the purpose of ameliorating the climatic 

 conditions for man and beast in the future. 



J. NiSBET. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



American fournal of Science, January. — Researches in 

 acoustics. No. 9, by Alfred M. Mayer. This paper deals with 

 the law connecting the pitch of a sound with the duration of its 

 residual sensation, and with the smallest consonant intervals 

 among simple tones. The residual sound, i.e. the sound per- 

 ceived by the ear after the actual vibration has ceased, was in- 

 vestigated by means of an apparatus consisting of a tuning-fork 

 vibrating close to the opening of a resonator. The nipple of the 

 resonator was placed opposite a hearing-tube leading to the ear, 

 and the sound was interrupted by a rotating perforated disc inter- 

 posed between the nipple and the opening of the tube. The 

 discs, which were made of mahogany covered with cardboard, 

 had several circles of holes, and intercepted the sound very 



1 See also the article on " The Penury of Russia" mth.^ Edinburgh Review 

 for January 1893 (pp. 17-19), which may be said to contain a summary of the 

 best opinions on the matter. 



NO. 1265, VOL. 49] 



