226 J. H. MAIDEN. 



flowers. The cattle and all the animals get fat during 

 their stay on the "Lomas" as they are called. I am 

 indebted to Mr. Charles Ledger of "Cinchona Ledgeriana" 

 fame, for the above particulars. He was long resident in 

 Peru. 



This deposition of moisture by means of trees is familiar 

 to many of us in New South Wales. We have observed it 

 in the forests covering the coastal escarpment, while the 

 dripping of the trees from the "mountain mist" is a 

 phenomenon very familiar to visitors to such of our moun- 

 tain districts as are forest-covered. 



V. Not Merely a Question of Large Trees. 



When one speaks of the effects of the destruction of 

 vegetation on the climate, it is a common error to assume 

 that trees, forest trees, are alone referred to. As far as 

 the Western country is concerned, the number of trees 

 available for ringbarking has at all times been insignificant 

 in comparison with the coastal country and Dividing Range. 

 In other words they were not there to ringbark. But 

 there has been much vegetation of a smaller kind, and it 

 is believed by many that the eating out and burning over 

 of much of this vegetation is responsible to some extent 

 for the changed condition of the western country to-day. 



The problem for New South Wales is to make the very 

 best use of the water we receive, to keep it as long as we 

 possibly can, and the encouragement of vegetable growth 

 is a factor which tends to enable us to do this. 



"The main forest covering of the mountains of Southern Cali- 

 fornia consists of chaparral and brush. This covering holds the 

 ,soil on the steep mountain sides and detains the rainfall delivery 

 ,so that time is given for it to percolate into the water veins and 

 natural reservoirs. Where these water-sheds are burned over, 

 the importance of the forest covering is at once demonstrated. In 

 such districts the destructive force of the floods increase. . . . 



