484 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Juyz, 1899. 
3. They have a great effect on the climate of a country, modifying, or 
rather averting, destructive torrents of rain, and increasing or 
regulating the rainfall. ‘ 
4. They furnish timbers, dyes, medicines, &c. 
Man is a destructive being, and his destroying power is, perhaps, nowhere 
so well shown as in the wholesale cutting down of large tracts of timber in 
yarious parts of the world. Thinking only of himself and his present wants, 
and reckless of all consequences, the timber has been, and is being, wantonly 
and wilfully destroyed. It is sad, very sad, to think what mischief and what 
desolation has been wrought in the fairest countries of the world by the reckless, 
wanton, wilful, destruction of forests. Persia, the whole Indus valley, the 
yalley of the Euphrates, Palestine, and, above all, Lesser Asia, have each of 
them suffered grievously from this waste. Lesser Asia, which the’ ancient 
Greels looked upon as the garden of the world, is now subject to droughts 
like that which not so very long ago spread death throughout whole provinces, 
It is the same everywhere—in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Australia. 
In many countries the evil effects of this clearing of extensive tracts of timber 
has been followed with direful results, and strenuous efforts have been, and are 
being, made to try and remedy the serious consequences of such wanton folly. 
France, India, and the United States, amongst other countries, all have made 
extensive forest clearings on the spur of the moment, and without the least 
thought of what might follow. A time came when they saw the folly of their 
systems of total forest destruction, but not before they had suffered severely 
and bitterly regretted the consequences which had arisen, and that they had not 
taken steps to prevent such destruction at an earlier period. They started to 
remedy the defects by forest conservancy, and good and great have been the 
results. In France replanting began at a great rate, and is still being carried 
on to the public good. In India a whole “ service” was formed to manage the 
forests, to take care that they are cut judiciously, and to see that new planta- 
tions are always made after a clearance, in order that the furnaces may be kept 
in fuel without any risk of entirely stripping the country of its timber. In the 
United States, laws against the reckless destruction of the forests have been 
made. The effects of this wanton destruction of forests have been felt in 
Australia, and several of the colonies have awakened to the folly of the system, 
and have gone in for forest conservancy. 
France was the first to see the foolishness of destroying her forests whole- 
sale, and I shall give a few brief remarks of how she suffered and of what she has 
done to alleviate those sufferings. In the South of France the land is cut up 
into small properties of only a few acres each. The peasant farmers cleared 
away every tree until there were whole districts without even as much as a 
single one. After this was done it was found that, though he got a few more 
square yards of ground for his crops, the gentle showers, which hitherto had 
fallen regularly, were few and far between. Droughts become more frequent, 
and. when rain-did fall it came down in such torrents that destructive floods were 
caused, which carried destruction and desolation before them. Jn the moun- 
tainous districts after the wholesale cutting down of the timber, the rain, when it 
fell, wrought terrible havoc. There were no trees to check its action, and con- 
sequently the soil was washed away, until in many places, which when the trees 
were standing had been fertile patches, the bare rocks were exposed. When 
the wanton destruction of timber was going on, a Frenchman named M, 
Beequerel made careful observations on the climate, and advocated the retention 
of the trees. But, like a class of similar men in other parts of the world, the 
French peasant would have his own way. For years M. Becquerel studied and 
observed and advocated, but to no use. At last in 1850 he published a book on 
the “ Effects of Forests on Climate,” which met with great approval, and many 
who sided with him, and with those who had been his fellow-workers, joined in 
such a loud cry against forest destruction that people got frightened, and began 
to replant at a great rate, and with good results. 
