234 DISCUSSION. 



the same to a less extent, they, each in its own way, contribute to 

 the general growth of other kinds of vegetation ; and we have 

 instances enough in Australia of the effects of even an ordinary 

 drought on pastures to bid us be cautious how we rashly cut away 

 all chance of nourishment so produced from the roots of grasses 

 themselves. We all know how long it takes to revive pastures 

 that have once been scorched into a state near to destruction. 

 I am given to understand that Mr. Brodribb himself, and his 

 relation Mr, Desailly, in Victoria, had sad experience of it. 

 Can we believe that the dead roots of trees are more available 

 for such a process than living roots, or that the whole order 

 of nature does not show that it was the will of the Creator 

 that the earth should be replenished by arboriculture and agricul- 

 ture as well as by the culture of grasses, seeing that trees and 

 grasses all came in together in the same natural epoch, and 

 have ever since thriven together in harmonious union? To 

 suppose a continuance of this does not imply the neglect of 

 judicious clearing of land — ring-barking does not clear it — and 

 some land must be cleared, if the hoped for influx of population 

 should take place. But, unless men be contented to live without 

 the shelter and other benefits of trees, and will not provide them 

 w^here needed by fresh plantations, they can only inhabit, like 

 the nomadic races, a half -desert region, where there may be only 

 dry river beds and wells that hold no water. I would ask those 

 who are doubtful, to carefully peruse the documents from which 

 I have quoted in my original paper, and to w^eigh well the words 

 of a writer in a late number of OJiam'bers' s Journal : — " Whilst 

 extensive forest clearings have been made, reckless of conse- 

 quences, in India, the United States, and other portions of the 

 globe, Prance was the first country to awake to the folly of the 

 system. The old seigneurs loved woods ; the peasant farmer 

 hates them. In the south, where the land has been more cut up 

 into small properties than in other parts, the trees have been so 

 cleared off that there are whole communes without any — moun- 

 tain communes, which, owing to the now unchecked action of the 

 rains, bid fair to be nothing but bare rock. Tlie peasant grubs up 

 a tree, and thereby gets a few more square yards for his rye 

 or lucerne ; but also he helps to keep off the gentle rains, and 

 to bring about destructive droughts, alternately with no less des- 

 tructive floods. That, at any rate, was the conclusion to which 

 years of study and observation led M. Becquerel, who, a quarter 

 of a century ago, published his book on the E:ffiects of Forests 

 on Climate." (30th September, 1876, p. 591.) I may add that I 

 very much regret never having seenM.Becquerel's work,as Idoubt 

 not I could have found in it many corroborations, as strong as that 

 last quoted, of the justness of the views which I have now en- 

 deavoured to enforce and illustrate. Lastly, to meet an argu- 

 ment which I have heard in favour of ring-barking and clearing 



