98 
This is inconclusive, for the reason that the years referred to may have been 
in a rainy cycle. 
It is recorded o these (part of the Leeward Islands) that, in former times, they were clothed with 
dense forests, and the oldest inhabitants remembered when the rains were abundant and the hills and all 
uncultivated places were shaded by extensive groves. The removal of the trees teas certainly the cause of 
the evil. The opening of the soil to the vertical sun rapidly dries up the moisture, and prevents the rain 
from sinkina; to the roots of plants. The rainy seasons in those climates are not continuous cloudy days, 
but successions of sudden showers with the sun shining hot in the intervals. Without shade upon the 
surface the water is rapidly exhaled, and the springs and streams diminish.* 
See also a paper by the Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., F.R.S., on the " Effects of 
Forest Vegetation on Climate.,"! which contains references to a number of authors, 
and which provoked an interesting discussion. 
A pamphlet by Mr. F. S. PeppercorneJ gives a number of instances of 
countries whose present aridity is attributed to diminished rainfall, caused by 
extensive cutting-down of trees. 
Aragua affords an interesting example of the evil influence of the wholesale destruction of trees in 
lessening running streams, 
J. Croumbie Brown" (op. cit., p. 112) gives additional information in regard 
to this interesting locality. 
The Report of the Director of the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide for 1881 has 
an appendix on "The Influence of Forests on Climate," which mainly repeats the 
instances given in " The Forest " of Prof. Schacht. 
Mr. J. G. O. Tepper, an earnest writer on philosophical questions pertaining 
to plant life, has a paper || which is well worthy of perusal. It enumerates a 
number of the oft- quoted examples of altered climatic conditions attributed to 
destruction of forests, and also deals with the problems of physics which are involved 
^n a proper understanding of the subject. 
\ (c) The case " Forest Destruction does not diminish rainfall ": 
With us forest destruction takes two forms : 
1. The felling, removal, and burning off necessary for agricultural and other 
settlement, and which many thinking men are of opinion is often carried 
out in too drastic a manner, to the detriment of the owner of the land 
himself, who often finds he has got rid of shelter and timber he would 
afterwards be glad of. 
2. Ringbarking, which is necessary to fit much of our land for grazing 
purposes and which like (1) is undoubtedly done ignorantly and recklessly, 
particularly, I think, losing sight of the incipient creeks which are the 
beginnings of floods and washaways. This is a very wide question, which 
I have dealt with on a previous occasion (Agricultural Gazette, June, 1905, 
page 540). 
* Letter from l>r. Hooker to Lord Kimberley, 1870. 
t Journal Royal Soc., N.S.W., 1876, 179 ft *</. 
t "The Influence of Forests on Climate and Rainfall," Napier, N.Z., 1880. 
J. M. Spciicc, " Thi' l/imlof ilolivar," i, 159. 
"The Influence of Vegetation on Climiite and Rainfall," read before the Royal Soc. of S. A., 3rd May, 1898 (printed 
by Adelaide Obien-cr). 
