450 
ECONOMIZING PRECIPITATION. 
0 
globe; for when the earth was covered with the forest, peren¬ 
nial springs gushed from the foot of every hill, brooks flowed 
down the bed of every valley. The partial recovery of the 
fountains and rivulets which once abundantly watered the face 
of the agricultural world seems practicable by such means, 
even without any general replanting of the forests ; and the 
cost of one year’s warfare, if judiciously expended in a com¬ 
bination of both methods of improvement, would secure, to 
almost every country that man has exhausted, an amelioration 
of climate, a renovated fertility of soil, and a general physical 
improvement, which might almost be characterized as a new 
creation. 
