PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



stood, while near by, fields of waving grain rejoiced tlie ■ 

 hearts of the husbandmen, the lesson is the same, — 

 forests, fields, and firesides, are three inseparable links 

 in the golden chain of man's prosperity as a tiller of the 

 soil. 



But the destruction of forests in the old world 

 interests us, mainly as a warning, showing what may 

 happen in this, if we continue doing as we have done 

 during the past half century, in stripping the land of 

 forests. I doubt if we haye any proof that the destruc- 

 tion of forests thus far, in America, has had any per- 

 ceptable influence upon the amount of rainfall, and 

 there are not wanting instances where more rain has fallen 

 in the open country than in the forests, but I beheve 

 that the fact is well established that in wooded countries, 

 or where forests abound, it rains oftener and the atmos- 

 phere is, in consequence, more humid than where the 

 opposite conditions exist. Marsh in his ^^Man and 

 Nature," sums up this question of the effect of i 

 forests and rainfall as follows: The effect of the i i 

 forests then, is not entirely free from doubt, and we i 

 cannot positively affirm that the total annual quantity of 

 rain is diminished or increased by the destruction of the ; 

 woods, though both theoretical considerations and the | 

 balance of testimony strongly favor the opinion that more , 

 rain falls in wooded, than in open countries, one im- j 

 portant conclusion, at least, upon the meteorological I 

 influence of forests is certain and undisputed ; the I k 

 proposition, namely, that within their own limits, and | 

 near their own borders, they maintain a more uniform j ei 

 degree of humidity in the atmosphere, than is observed so 

 in the cleared grounds, scarcely less can it be questioned | re; 

 that they promote the frequency of showers, and if they eg] 

 do not augment the amount of precipitation, they m 

 equalize its distribution throughout the season." 



There are, no doubt, great irregularities which must be 



