RESTORATION OF WOODS. 



sparing and nursing of the still standing and new woods, 

 in the vigorous planting of trees on a large scale in the 

 whole land, indeed in every land. Trees must be 

 planted not only in the streets, where they are for the 

 most part found now, but on lanes, on ridges and hil- 

 locks, and on dams. What room the railroad dams oc- 

 cupy ! Also, around all springs of water, on the shores of 

 all brooks, on the edges of all ponds, on bare moun- 

 tain slopes and in all waste places. Street and village 

 lanes and house gardens must be increased in number 

 for this purpose, and should be well planted. This can- 

 not be effected by one effort ; and our country popula- 

 tion must be gained over to this idea, and be convicted 

 of their indolence. 



The preliminary condition of improvement is the sys- 

 tematic foundation of school gardens in the whole land. 

 Even the artificially planted woods, with their ditches 

 to carry off the superfluous water, can never give again 

 to a country that abundance of moisture which, in former 

 times, the original forests distributed far and wide. 

 Still less can large plantations of fruit trees make up 

 for the woods of past times. But, in co-operation with 

 other plantings, they will combat the increasing drought 

 in many countries ; and those drying winds which now 

 blow in so many regions over the bare fields and open 

 cultivated plains, to the great injury of the growth of 

 plants, and which carry off from the ground the ammo- 

 niacal contents which are necessary to plant life, to- 

 gether with the indispensable moisture, will finally be 

 arrested. With the restoration of the woods, the air 

 and earth will again attain the necessary moisture ; the 

 extremes of the differences of temperature between day 

 and night will diminish; luxurious orchards will no 



