364 Canadian Record of Science. 
FORESTRY FOR CANADA. ' 
By H. G. Joy pE LoTBINIERE. 
The forest does not only supply the invaluable commodi- 
ties of fuel and lumber,.it exercises a great influence on the 
climate, and on agriculture. If science has not yet admitted 
that the presence of forests increases the rainfall (by con- 
densation of vapour held in the atmosphere, owing to the 
lower temperature of the forest land, or by other means), 
it is universally admitted that the forest regulates, through- 
out the year, the distribution of water in our streams, 
contributes to retain the moisture favourable to vegetation, 
retards evaporation and checks the effects of drying winds. 
Unfortunately, it is only after the forest is gone, that its 
value is truly appreciated, as in the South of France, Spain, 
Italy, Greece, and many other countries, once fertile, now 
barren and unproductive. ‘The two great extremes, long 
drought and disastrous inundations, are due to the same cause, 
viz: the wholesale destruction of the forests, especially on the 
mountains, the birthplace of the streams. The soil of 
many a fertile valley is now hidden under a thick bed of 
sand, gravel and boulders (as we often see in Switzerland) 
brought down by torrents from the mountain slopes, where 
the trees which once retained the ground with their roots, 
have been destroyed. The rain, instead of soaking gradu- 
ally through the moss, vegetable mould and roots, and 
feeding, by degrees, the springs and streams, as it did, while 
the forest lived, rushes down to the valleys below, as it falls, 
as from the sides of a roof, in irresistible torrents, carrying 
with it the ground that nothing now retains on the steep 
mountain side. 
It is most interesting to follow the work of re-afforesting 
carried on, principally in France, on the Landes for nearly 
a century, and on the barren mountain slopes, and to notice 
their beneficial results. The efforts of the ‘Ligue du 
1Sommerville lecture, delivered March 7th, 1889. 
