ences in determining- its opposing 

 power to the course of tempests, its 

 huge arms holding the winds in check 

 that would otherwise sweep on with 

 increasing and devastating strength. 



The service of forests in preserving 

 the integrity of fertile lands, in break- 

 ing the sweep of winds before they de- 

 velop into cyclonic power, is so widely 

 known that reference to it here might 

 seem unneeded were it not for the in- 

 difference with which in most quarters 

 of this continent the felling of noble 

 forests, the growth of centuries, is sub- 

 mitted to without protest. 



Apart from the extensive tracts thus 

 devastated, which have been the oppos- 

 ing forces to our winds and to consid- 

 erable extent forces in regulating the 

 supply of moisture to fertile lands, on 

 every side of us we see the smaller gir- 

 dles of timber-land opening up into 

 clearings, affording ready avenues for 

 the unimpeded tempest's sway. 



The farms, where but a while ago the 

 lower growths of timber were allowed 

 to do their little in holding back the 

 wind-forces from the fields, are becom- 

 ing more and more the wide stretches 

 of cultured soil, too well kept to be bor- 

 dered by the familiar hedge-row, too 

 valuable to be shaded by trees, or in- 

 vaded by wide-spreading roots. 

 ' The felling of a tree, it should be re- 

 membered, is not an act independent of 

 result and subject of interest alone to 

 the hand that hews it. A tree is a bene- 

 factor which has done its own part in 

 bringing fertility and preserving the 

 same- in the region where it has been 

 permitted to accomplish its work of 

 growth. 



Not only have the trees which the 

 axe is leveling been the instruments of 

 inducing rainfall and baffling the havoc- 

 dealing course of tempests, but they 

 conserve the moisture where it falls, 

 holding it in check by the net-work of 

 its roots, retaining it to a slower, more 

 helpful mission in the field beyond; 

 holding it also in the matted tissues of 

 its fallen leaves whence it drifts slower 

 to some root or brook, thus inducing 

 prolific vegetation and preventing the 



rush of water consequent upon the 

 rapid deposits of pelting showers, which 

 otherwise would, without resisting ele- 

 ment, have swept the clearing with its 

 unimpeded force, carrying with it in its 

 turbulent course the best elements of 

 fertiHty, the top soil, which it could 

 have carried quickly to stream and 

 river, leading on toward that period 

 when the unresisting land may become, 

 while rainfalls continue, but a water- 

 shed to wash out the fertility of fields, 

 cut ever into new or deeper gullies, and 

 to carry flood and disaster along the 

 track of nature's swollen veins which 

 she is powerless to relieve. 



How soon public sentiment through- 

 out this land will be awakened to the 

 dangers impending through drouth, cy- 

 clone and flood by the disregard of ob- 

 vious natural law by which alone calam- 

 ity can be averted it is difficult to pre- 

 dict, but the sooner a widespreading at- 

 tempt to insure this end is made the 

 better it will be that districts now hab- 

 itable and fertile may not be irretriev- 

 ably given up to conditions prevailing 

 over other desert regions of the earth. 



Though the statement that lumbering 

 demands must be supplied may be given 

 as decisive and incontrovertible by 

 those standing between our noble for- 

 ests and the vandal forces preying upon 

 them, and though the owners of estates 

 may feel themselves independent and 

 above reproach in destroying trees lim- 

 iting vision or the boundaries of arable 

 land, let it be ever remembered that 

 there are unwritten obligations to the 

 world which men are bound to consider 

 and there are natural forces which no 

 logic or commercial consideration can 

 over-rule or mitigate. 



Might not one way of tending to- 

 ward the preservation of timber-land be 

 found through the remission of taxes to 

 the land-owner in proportion to the 

 area of timber-reservation which his 

 territory represents? 



Even in very small estates this sys- 

 tem might assist in stemming a tide 

 which is carrying this country toward 

 a vortex from which the future may 

 find it difficult or impossible to recede. 



George Klingle. 



