226 APPENDIX. 



Prance and Grermany it lias been estimated tliat at least one- 

 fifth of the land should be planted with forest trees, in order to 

 maintain the proper hygrometric and electric equilibrium. for suc- 

 cessful farming. Mirabeau estimated that there should be retained 

 in France thirty- two per cent, of land in wood. In the state of 

 Texas, it is represented that there is an area four times that of 

 the State of Pennsylvania, without a tree or a slu'ub. In Califor- 

 nia there is only four-one-tenth per cent. It is to this State I 

 call your attention, and to this people my lecture is directed. 

 "We have, perhaps, the most healthful, most equable, the best 

 climate on this globe, and the only objections that can be urged 

 are the prevailing high winds, and an uncertain, as well as an 

 insufficiency of rainfall. Moderate the winds, increase the rain, 

 and we have perfection." 



^ T? tF 'f^ 



" How is this to be done ? How are we to obtain this result r 



By planting forest trees." 



# # ^ * 



" It is known and proved that the three-fourths of the surface 

 will produce more, if jDrotected by trees planted on the other 

 fourth, than the whole would without the trees and without the 

 protection." 



Here w^e have the opinion of a man well able to judge, and who 

 appeals to statistics to confirm his views. What would be his 

 opinion of a people who are found destroying some of the most 

 valuable of the timber in any given country, without provision 

 for the re-production of forest vegetation — sacrificing, as is the 

 case in Austi^alia, acres of such trees as the ironbark, white and 

 blue gum, and other valuable ornaments of the country — and 

 without regard to the wants of the present or future settlers, 

 under the plea that it is advantageous to have a little more grass, 

 and T^dthout considering others are coming after them, who have 

 rights of wdiich no individual is justified in depriving them. 



Mr. Cooper adds to liis arguments this — " What we have, 

 therefore, to do as indiidduals, is to begin at once to plant. It is 

 an obligation we owe to the possessory title to land ; and finan- 

 cially we wdll be rew^arded for our labours." 



{No. 7.) — Forest Vegetation on the Coast. 



The following extract from a letter to myself, under date of 

 16th November, 1876, by a friend whose powers and habits of 

 observation are of a high order, and to whom our Society is 

 indebted for a valuable communication on the connection of 

 forest vegetation with geology, is worthy of consideration by 

 those who doubt the influence of trees upon the atmosphere. 

 " The effects of forest vegetation on climate are most marked in 

 the Coast district, about the heads of the Macleay, Bellinger, 



