OBJECTS OF COVERING MOUNTAINS WITH TKEES. 183 



humidity which falls upon it. Mountains that are de- 

 nuded of forests discharge the mass of melted snow 

 which has been accumulating there during the winter 

 as soon as the warmth of the sun increases in spring. 

 Then the waters and streams rush down the valleys, 

 carrying off whatever they find in their way, swell up 

 the rivulets and rivers of the valleys, into which they 

 flow, and cause enormous damage by the inundations 

 that follow. But when the mountains are covered with 

 trees, the surface soil becomes not only continually richer, 

 owing to the accumulation of leaves under the trees and, 

 therefore, able to support, later on, more and stronger 

 trees, but also thicker, so as to absorb and retain more 

 moisture than the old soil was able to do. During the 

 Avinter the soil of the forests protected by trees, dead 

 leaves, mosses, etc., seldom freezes, and so the enow under 

 the influence of the warmth of the earth melts so slowly 

 from beneath, that when the warm season appears, some- 

 times still in the middle of the summer, vestiges of ice and 

 snow can be found there. The consequence of this 

 condition of the ground is that every liquid particle is 

 seized and in its course downward retarded. The for- 

 mer inundations during spring, followed by aridity and 

 low water in the navigable rivers during the summer, 

 cease, and in their stead the discharge of water from the 

 mountains is so regulated as to deliver an equal and 

 continually well-regulated flow. The conclusive proof 

 of these facts is that, in general, abundant springs are 

 almost all situated at the foot of wooded mountains or 

 hills. 



In order to obtain with certainty the above-stated 

 objects of sylviculture upon mountains, there should be 

 applied that form of forest management by which the 

 sustained growth of standard (fully developed) trees or 

 high forests will be secured. The so-called coppice man- 



