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Our late Government Astronomer has given special attention to the "Forests 
and Rainfall " subject for many years, particularly with reference to Australia, and 
I cannot do better than quote some of his published statements. 
Mr. Russell speaks,* in regard to forest destruction and climate, of "the tiny 
efforts of men " in the way of forest destruction, and the enormous quantity of 
felling and ringbarking that followed the Tree Selection before Survey Act of 1861. 
He proceeds : " How is it that in India, where trees are conserved instead of 
destroyed, drought of extreme severity overtakes the country, and this too at times 
coincident with our droughts in Australia ? " He al.so gives instances of droughts 
in the Pacific Islands and South Africa. 
Mr. Russell formally reported on the subject, and his report was laid before 
Parliament on 30th November, 1898. He quotes the reports of the Meteorological 
Society of Edinburgh in 1859, in connection with the forests and rainfall question, 
which stated that " there were no grounds for thinking the rainfall of Western 
Europe was getting less." He adds: 
An elaborate investigation of the rainfall records by Mr. Syrnonds (the highest authority on such 
matters in England) had led to a similar conclusion. An investigation carried out in the United States 
by the Smithsonian Institution resulted in a decision that no evidence was to be found of .a decreasing 
rainfall, and in America they had destroyed forests wholesale. Professor Marsh, in his book, " The 
Earth, as modified by human action," had discussed the question fully ; and after considering all the 
available evidence, he concluded that there was no evidence that the annual rainfall had diminished by 
the action of man in the destruction of trees. Those parts of the State which had suffered most from the 
drought Western Iliverina and the Darling country had done practically no ringbarking. 
Mr. Russell adds : 
. . . So far as New South Wales is concerned, he felt quite certain that the destruction of , 
trees had riot decreased the rainfall, but would rather appear to have increased it.f As an instance, the 
average rainfall over the whole colony 1889 to 1894, inclusive was 24-7 per cent, above the average 
of all years. 
Mr. T. Kidston, a gentleman of much experience, states : 
I entirely dissent from the opinion that forest destruction diminishes rainfall. I have been through 
Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and the New England States of North America, where the greatest 
amount of timber cutting has taken place in the world's history in a like time, and yet the rainfall 
statistics show that during the last sixty years the rainfall has slowly, yet continuously, risen ; and one of 
the most eminent meteorologists (Professor Marsh, from memory), after a life-long study, has recorded his 
opinion " that rainfall i^ not increased or diminished by anything that man has done, but by some great 
cause external to the earth." In this western^ country, if ridden over a fortnight after a fall of 2 or 3 
inches of rain, it will be found soft and boggy, if ringbarked ; but the adjoining unringed country will 
be comparatively firm and sound. In the latter (green timbered country) the enormously increased 
evaporating surface of the leafage, compared with the area of the plot occupied by the tree, has carried the 
moisture off into the air, which is still retained in the soil among the dead ringbarked timber, and the 
grasses are nourished long after the soil among the live trees is parched and dry. The main cause of the 
water disappearing more rapidly from rolling or hilly country now than formerly is the solidification of the 
soil by the trampling of stock, more especially sheep. In Western Queensland, or any new country, before 
being stocked, the surface was soft and spongy, and a large part of the rainfall sank directly into the soil. 
Now, when trodden down and hardened by stock, the water more readily runs off, and so tends to form 
* Letter to Sydney Morning Herald, 31st December, 1S9S. Seo also Hazon. 
1 1 have dealt with the subject of natural forest growths appearing without human agency in my Presidential 
Address, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 1902, p. 785, and would say that we have few data as to the net forest area ill New 
South Wales, showing how forest destruction is balanced against planted and natural growth. 
I " Kingbarkiiig in Western New South Wales." Agric. Gazette, N.H.W., November, 1894. 
