USES OF THE FORESTS, 5 
low country through the longest summers, and moderating the 
violence of droughts by mists and dews. All along the coast of 
New England, numerous little streams, which were formerly fed 
by the forests, and often rolled a volume of water sufficient to 
turn a mill in summer, are now dried up at that season, and 
only furnish a drain for the melting snows of spring, or the 
occasional great rains of autumn. 
Forests thus equalize the temperature and soften the climate, 
protecting from the extremes of cold and heat, dryness and 
humidity. ‘There is little doubt that, if the ancient forests of 
Spain could be restored to its hills, its ancient fertility would 
return. Now, there is nothing to conduct electricity, nothing to 
arrest the clouds and make them pour their treasures upon the 
earth, no reservoirs to lay up the winter’s rain in store against 
the droughts of summer. 
3. Forests protect a country from the violence of winds. The 
lively author of “ Life in Mexico” writes,* “M. de Humboldt, 
who examined the will of Cortes, informs us that the conqueror 
had left sugar plantations near Cuyoacan, in the valley of 
Mexico, where now, owing, it is supposed, to the cutting down 
of the trees, the cold is too great for sugar cane or any other 
tropical production to thrive.’ Anda most inteiligent gentle- 
man in Worcester tells me, that he attributes the greater difii- 
culty now experienced in the cultivation of the more delicate 
fruits in that town, to the fact, that the encircling hills, formerly 
crowned with trees, are now, to a considerable degree, laid bare. 
The laws of the motion of the atmosphere are similar to those 
of water. A bare hill gives no protection. The wind pours 
over it as water pours overa dam. Butif the hill be capped 
with trees, the windy cascade will be broken as into spray. 
Its violence will be sensibly diminished. We are not aware, 
on the now protected and irregular surface of New England, 
how important are the screens furnished by the forests. ‘Trav- 
ellers from Illinois tell us, that on the vast prairies in that and 
some of the other western States, the wind is almost always 
fresh, and often blows a gale, before which men can hardly 
* Volume II., p. 52. 
