1849.] 



exercised hy Trees on Climate. 



447 



them to the influence of vitiated air. But even with every excess we 

 may with full confidence assert that the increased mortality which 

 many most gratuitously assume as the inevitable consequence ot 

 much vegetation, would never amount to five hundred thousand, the 

 number of the native population that are said to have died in 

 1839, in India, of famine alone * A famine sweeping whole cities 

 nay whole districts from the earth must far exceed, in the amount 

 of misery and number of deaths it occasions, the hardships which 

 would be entailed on a family by one of its members being carried off 

 from a more sickly climate, even supposing that the planting of trees 

 would ever become excessive or cause a climate to become worse, 

 which I do not believe. 



Many famines have occurred in this country and one or two of 

 them may have been caused by wars, and other causes unconnect- 

 ed with climate, but most of them have been owing to droughts, 

 and our efforts to prevent their recurrence must be made to procure 

 an ample supply of water; for rich as the soil is in many parts of 

 India, the soil acts a very secondary part. In a tropical country water 

 is all in all : for let the soil be ever so stony or sandy a good supply of 

 water will make various grains spring from it in abundance. But 

 to obtain our utmost supply of water from the atmosphere we must 

 plant trees : to prevent the rain as soon as it falls from rushing to 

 the rivers and thence to the ocean, in fact to retard its flow and thus 

 be enabled for a longer period to employ it for agricultural purposes, 

 we must plant trees, and we must plant trees in order to have a few 

 springs of water trickling from the mountain sides. 



Were the hills in India covered with trees neither the torrents, 

 which rush;from them during the rainy season, nor the dry cracked 

 and burned up appearance that they present during the hot season 

 would longer be seen. If we can imagine the mountains in the Mau- 

 ritius near the Petre Botte or the Petre Botte itself instead of being 

 coverel^ with tall trees to be perfectly bare of wood, in the first place 

 none of the clouds which so frequently hang on their summits would 

 ever be condensed, and the rain if it fell would rush down the rocky 

 sides of the mountains in torrents, their beds becoming dry the mo- 

 ment the rain ceased ; but with their well clad sides much water is 



* Agra Ukhbar for January, 1840. 



