June i, 1892.] 
THE TROP1CJM. /lEGRWm.T0m8T. 
931 
Ooolies (oar Ubonrers) have to be considered. Oood 
“liuee” on Bali dale were nearly complete by last 
advioea, The directors believe in treating coolies 
well, and that if there be a preesure for labour thoee 
estates sitnnled.aB the company’s are, in a healthy 
district, nnd furnished with comfortable" lines, ’’ will 
be greatly advantaged through having the preference 
betore others among coolies. Prices ioc fine teas, like 
those from the company's properties, keep up very 
well, and are about as high as they were aytarago, 
though the average price of Ceylon tea has fallen. 
Coffee on St. Leonard's promises to b s again a fair 
crop. It has been estimated at 3,000 bushels for 1802 
by Air. Edwanl Grigson, who at that figure muob 
under-estimated it last year. There were exoesaivo rains 
that must have caused some loss in January and Feb- 
ruary. On Liddesdale, iu January, the total fall was 
45$ iuobes in S5 days, against an average of about 70 
for the year. We have had no crop figures since ; but 
if there was the same margin on the estimate this year 
as last year, some coffee may bo lest and yet leave a 
fair crop. Tea from Eskdale abo promises excep- 
tionally well ; and the general prospeets fur the year 
current seemed bright and promising. 
Questions were asked about the accounts, and re- 
marks made by Messrs. Johnston, Anstrnther, Wilson, 
and others. When these were answered, the repi.rt 
was ailopted. A dividend at the rate of 10 per cent per 
annum was voted for the four and a half months of 
1861, and £50 for division among the directors for 
past work. Mr. Grieve and Mr. Brooke were respec- 
tively elected and re-eleoted directors, Mr. F G, M. 
Grove, A. 0. A., auditor. 
Mr. Grieve, in roturning thanks, said that he had 
the highest opinion of the estat' s, of their capabilities, 
and of their prospects, and that be had backed his 
opinions in the large smnunt of shares he held. He 
added that tbo obairmaii had remarked on fine teas 
keeping np in price, though the average prion had 
fallen. Qe(Mr. Grieve, might add in oonfirmstion that 
he had, since he entered the room, a memorandnm of 
prions put into bis hands showing that bis Eskdale teas 
were snlling that week at Id per lb. advance in each 
grade over the prioes of the corresponding date last 
year. 
A vote of thanks to the chairman conolnded the pro- 
ceedings.— if. and C. Mail, April 22ud. 
THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON 
WATER-SUPPLY. 
Does onllivstion and protection of forests cause an 
increase in rainfall? The reply of Mr. Henry Gannett, 
as puldished in Scienee, does not tend to oonfirm the 
generally admitted opinion on this question ; whilst 
the statiatioB collected by this scientist have the more 
value, in that they refer to extended trac s in which the 
ooiiditions of the country and the climate, both before 
and after changes iu onltntal treatment, are perfectly 
well known. 
His observations extend over — 
I. — Ad area of prairie lands in the State of Iowa 
iu the north of Missouri, in the South of Minnesota, 
Illiuoio, and partly in Indiana. This aiea, measuring 
about 163,000 square miles, was formerly entirely covered 
with grass, but during the last 30 years large portions 
of it have been afforested. 
II. — The Siale of Ohio, with an area of abont 68,000 
square miles, formerly entirely covered with forests 
ot which at tbo present not one-tenth exists. 
III. — An area of abont I8.4C0 square miles sitnaled 
iu Massaefanssotts, Rhode Island, and Oonuectiont, 
which was densely wooded before its colonisation by 
Fatopeane. After (be almost total dsalructiou of 
these forests, abont one-balf of tha area has, since 
1860, been ro-sflorested. 
If the removal of forests prodnocs a decrease, and 
aS<rsBtatiuD an iooruase, in the rainfall, the result of 
observations extending over a long series of years 
shonld show in the first instance an increase in tha 
rainfall, in the second a decrease, and in the third a 
decrease up to 1860, and an increasu after that dale, 
But the statUtios onlleoted by Mr. Gannett show 
that in these prairie lauds an increase iu the area under 
furest has not only not been followed by an inersaae 
in rainfall, but by an appreciable decreaaa. In the 
second instance, that ol Ohio, a decrease in rainfall 
has indeed been proved, but this decrease is ao inaigui- 
fisant that it oannat be seriously advanced as s con- 
olnsive proof of the anfavorabls effect of diaafforcs- 
latiuD. The remits of statistics collected in the third 
inslanoe, that ol Massachusetts, also do not tend to 
confirm in any way tbo generally accepted theory, for 
up to i860 it is shown that there was an evident 
inciease in the rainfall over this area, reaching a maxi- 
mum of 28 inches annually. 
Mr Gannett also investigated the qnestion as 
whether the oultivation of land donnded of 
forest growth resulted in inflaenoing the rain- 
fall ; but the rosmt of these investigations proved 
that no increase or decrease had occurred. 
In writing generally on the canses of atmospheric 
phouiimena, we have replied to the often pot question 
which forms the title of this article long before Mr. 
Gannett wrote on the sabjeot. In this pariodioal some 
six years ago we said “ that forests do not produce 
rain, but that they play the important part of stor- 
ing it up.’’ 
A» far as coneerns Algeria, wo have arranged the 
obrervatiouB registered at various meteorological sta- 
tions iu the ptovinoes of Oran and OensUntlne, and 
these (ibservatious, extending over a period of 25 years 
refer to large areas covered with firost adjscont to 
o hers, which are eaiirely free from forest growth- 
and whilst the areas are not to be compared with those 
reported on by Mr. Gannett, yet the results of the ob- 
servations are very ounolusive. 
Thu region where the rainfall observations have most 
interest for the forester is bounded on the north, be- 
tween Bulgaria and Lalalle, by the Mediterranean, on 
the east and west by tbs valleys of Summam and Bez- 
bonse, and on the sooth by the high plateaux forming 
the water-shed between the sea and the desert of 
Sahara. This tract is in area about 47,000 squaro miles ; 
and tbongb no regular re-afforeataiion works are being 
earned out, yet the closure of large extents ol forest and 
pasture laud against tbo desttuctive action of the natives 
may almost be regarded as having a similar effect. 
In spite, however, of these protective measnros, many 
thonsands of acres have from 1860 to 1875 been burnt 
over, and it is espeoially in these burnt areas, when 
compered with others ancoessfully protected, that the 
rainfall statistics have the greatest significance. 
Those statistics show the following resails:— 
I. — That nearly the sameamoaotof rain fell anna- 
ally betore and after removal of forest growth, and 
before and after re-afforestation. 
II. — That totally different effects are prodaeed by the 
annual rainfall before end after removal of forest 
growth, aod before and after re afforestation. 
During the summer following the removal ol forest 
growth, the spring level begins to fall, and the follow- 
ing year most of th- springs dry up. 
In oonsequence of (be water-conrses oease to be 
permanent and become intermittent, being transformed, 
during actual rainfall, into impetuoua torreoti, which 
cease to flow during dry weather. 
The valley of Oned-Gnebli to the north of the pro- 
vince of Oonstantine furnishes a remarkable instanoe 
of this. 
This immense valley is divided into two portions by 
the river of the same name, and the western side in- 
oludes the densest forvsta of this region, whilst the 
eastern is almost entirely denuded. 
Daring eight years of topographical researob in 
those mountains, we have invariably remarked that 
during the winter, when heavy rain falls persistently 
often fur weeks at a time, the floods in the water 
courses from the Western or wooded si te rise slowly 
and rarely overflow the banks, and even after tropioai 
rain storms, which ace frequent, the water remains 
clear. 
On the eastern or denuded side, however, this is 
not the case. Scarcely has the rain commenced when 
each small ravine becomes a torrent, which rolls 
