2.0 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



Forest preservation and forest perpetuation are necessary for two main 

 reasons ; first, on account of the effect of forests on climate and water ; and 

 second, on account of the product that the forest yields in the wood it pro- 

 duces. Let us first consider their effect on climate and water. 



Geology informs us that in a remote age in the history of this continent 

 the whole of north-eastern America was denuded by glacial action of all 

 vegetable growth : but when a milder climate succeeded, the forest, obeying 

 that principle of life which is so characteristic of it in both the animal and 

 vegetable kingdom, namely, its essential qualities of surviving wherever its 

 environments will permit and of propagating its kind, soon began to encroach 

 on the treeless land and at the time of the discovery of America there was an 

 almost unbroken forest from the Atlantic seaboard for over a thousand miles 

 inland. This the pioneer settler was compelled to destroy in order that the 

 land might be used for agricultural purposes. This action on his pait was 

 necessary, but it has unfortunately been in many cases carried to such an 

 extreme as even to prejudicially effect the well being of the husbandman 

 himself in interfering with the flow of streams and disturbing meteorological 

 conditions that are essential to his existence. 



Let us notice for a moment this phase of the subject. We see the great 

 rivers pouring their waters into the ocean. They are fed by thousands of 

 tributary streams which receive their supply far inland at high elevations. 

 These feeders are only channels that serve a purpose in the great plan of 

 distribution. 



The heat of the sun is the first great agency in this pian of distribution. 

 By this agency vast quantities of water both from the sea and land are con- 

 vsrted into vapor which rises in the air and is carried in all directions. 

 When this vapor reaches a lower temperature it condenses and falls to the 

 surface of the earth. All that falling on the land \vhich is not again 

 evaporated is ultimately carried by gravity to the lowest level, namely, the 

 sea. 



The greatest amount of evaporation, other conditions being equal, will 

 be w 7 here there are the greatest areas of water, and precipitation will also be 

 greatest there, for those regions remote from the sea where the greatest 

 evaporation occurs w r ill only receive that portion that has escaped condensa- 

 tion in the journey through which the vapour has been carried. A good 

 illustration of this is afforded by the large rainfall of the east and west 

 coast of this continent and in a lesser degree in the neighborhood of other 



