EUCALYPTUS TREES. l5 



A seventy-four gun ship swallows up no less than 

 150,000 cubic feet, requiring 2,000 large, well-grown 

 timber trees. Supposing these trees should stand 

 thirty-three feet apart, it would require the timber of 

 fifty acres to build one such ship. 



According to a statistical table published by our 

 Government in 1874, there was in the New England, 

 Middle, and Western States an average of thirty-three 

 per cent, of wooded land. ' ' In Prance and Germany it 

 has been estimated that at least one fifth of the land 

 should be planted with forest trees in order to main- 

 tain the proper hygrometric and electric equilibrium 

 for successful farming." " Mirabeau estimated that 

 there should be retained inFrance thirty-two per cent, 

 of land in wood." In the State of Texas, it is represent- 

 ed that there is an area four times that of the State of 

 Pennsylvania, without a tree or a shrub. In Califor- 

 nia there is only 4/0 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 wind, and an uncertain, as well as an insuffi- 

 cient, quantity of rain-fall. Moderate the winds, in- 

 crease the rain, and we have perfection. This result 

 is so easily and so quickly to be obtained that it ought 

 to have the attention and serious consideration of every 

 land-owner in the State. How is this to be done ? 

 How are we to obtain this result ? By planting for- 

 est trees. I would recommend belts from 100 to 150 

 feet in width, each quarter of a mile, planted at right 

 angles with the prevailing direction of the winds, 

 and to line all the highways, parallel with or to the 



