THE TREES OF AMERICA. 47 



white pine is perhaps the most beautiful evergreen tree of the world. When 

 allowed to grow singly, as is the case with the specimen we have drawn, it may 

 perhaps be open to the objection which is sometimes urged against some other 

 species of evergreens ; that is, that it presents too regular an appearance. But 

 even in single individuals, unlike the spruce or fir, the pine is very liable to a 

 considerable variety of form. The slightest accident is sufficient to produce this 

 modification, and in many cases no tree can be more picturesque, while its dense, 

 green foliage, light and feathery almost as the plume of the ostrich, its inviting 

 shade and the soft brown carpet it spreads beneath, with its " soul-like music," 

 inspired by the gentlest breeze, render it worthy of the love of all noble souls. 

 The white pine, too, with its congeners, is the " health-giving tree, the favorite 

 of Hygeia." But this we shall speak of hereafter. It is one of our most rapid 

 growing trees, and for this reason, as well as the protection it affords against the 

 winds, it is peculiarly well adapted for growing in belts to that end, as has been 

 suggested on a former page. 



The New England Farmer of December 5, 1857, has an editorial article upon 

 the influence of trees in modifying climate, which we wish could be read by every 

 one in the country. We have referred to this subject before on a former page, 

 showing that the unobstructed blowing of the wind causes the rapid abstraction 

 of caloric in those cases where it is colder than the objects with which it comes 

 in contact, and the rapid imparting of heat when the reverse is true — that is, 

 when the wind is warmer than those objects. From this fact, and that the same 

 cause — the unobstructed blowing of the wind — produces the rapid evaporation 

 of moisture, we stated that droughts and the drying up of rivers, lakes, &c., 

 and freshets, also, are due to the destruction of our forests. The extreme and 

 rapid changes of weather, which of late years have been so frequent, and which 

 exert so pernicious an effect upon vegetation, are probably due in some, degree to 

 the same cause. Freshets are produced by the rapid concentration of water in 

 the streams. In this country, this result is brought about, in most cases, by the 

 sudden thawing of snow and ice, sometimes assisted by rain, but always mainly 

 dependent upon the blowing of warm winds. In the woods, as every one is 

 aware, the snow remains much longer than in the open country ; and as, of 



