Price. ] 198 [Nov. 16 & Dec.7, 
upon Climate, the supply of rain and retention of water as means of growth 
of grass, the cereals and other crops. Let us consider then what are those 
influences, and how far, as beneficent, they are within the control of man ; 
not that the means placed at our disposal by Mr. Michaux, can, in the trees 
they will plant, soon greatly influence climate, soil and rains; yet by af- 
fording a perpetual source of supply of trees, a perpetual example and dif- 
fusion of knowledge to others, no one can prescribe limits, in space or 
time, to the good these limited means may effect. 
The Society will, therefore, I think, pardon me for taking a wide survey, 
for it and all others to fillin its outlined work, according to the measure 
of their ability, and in the aggregate, all may do a great good, that would 
not be attempted if the sphere of operation were not widely opened, and 
the necessity of co-operative action, and the ways and means of success, 
were not explained, to be kept in view at present, and in a Jong future. 
With our duty mapped out, we and our successors will see the surveyed 
field of operations, and will be stimulated by the grandeur and beneficence 
of the prospect opened for good to our fellow beings. 
It cannot be doubted that Nature will ever willingly do her part of the 
work if not thwarted by man; nay, will do it exuberantly. The great 
need is to regulate and restrain his excess of destruction. Before man 
came upon the earth it had been densely covered by vegetation ; hence its 
pervading coal measures, lignites, and stores of oil that have been pre- 
served under the rocks to await the age of human intelligenee necessary to 
develop them. In that age happily we live. 
We may well believe that the earliest of our race found our world covered 
with forests ; except in those places unfitted for their growth. These were 
the polar regions, where ice cuts off the growth of trees; the mountain 
crests where both cold and want of soil prevent all growth of trees, and 
arid deserts. Whether we may give trees to the deserts is only a question 
of procuring water and soil. Yet the seemingly barren lands cast up by 
the sea can be made to bear forests, and to flourish in vegetation. 
Before man’s appearance, the great enemies of forest life did not exist. 
He alone could invent the axe and light the fire. Forests were then in ex- 
cess of man’s needs, and were utilized in fossil coal.. What evil he has done 
with the axe and fire, and how such evil may be repaired, we have to con- 
sider. True, the woods grow for legitimate uses ; for timber, for habita- 
tions, the mechanic arts and fuel; but not for wasteful destruction. They 
must also be felled for needful space and soil to grow the food that man 
and beast may live ; but not destroyed to an extent to put the supply of the 
food of life in peril ; or to so lessen it as to lessen population. In regions 
covered with timber capable of tillage, in excess of that point which will 
support the largest population in prosperity, clearing, without waste of 
what can be utilized, becomes a duty ; but to exceed that point is a wrong 
to humanity. In this we have the practical test that the wise and good 
will observe. Life to the greatest number of happy people is the moral and 
scientific problem and test of duty, as we must believe that such purpose 
was the intent of the Creator. 
