ARBORICULTURE.—III

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2493, 3 April 1882, Page 3

ARBORICULTURE.—III

That man haa taken an important part in the configuration and general aspect of inhabited countries is more and more apparent every time we ponder over the subject. That fair, fertile, and happy lands have been transformed into desolate and uninhabitable wastes, by the ignorance and stupidity of peoples, is placed beyond contradiction when we study the statistics and records of old established forest departments, and at the flame time we find abundant evidence of the reverse taking place. Thirty years ago the Danish island of Santa Cruz was one mass of smiling fertility—it could boast of a really beautiful flora, regular periods of rainfall, and a gonial climate in every sense of the word ; but the thoughtless hand of man destroying tho forests and neglecting to plant has brought that once fair island in suoh a short period to desolation and worthlessness.

Ouracoa, one of the Dutch West India Islands, is at the present time in a very barren state, subjeo': to prolonged droughts, and is entirely dependant on casual rains for all water; yet within the memory of living men it was once exceedingly fertile and possessed soveral springs of water. Had the vegetation been Bpared, or other trees planted, it would have been in that oondition now, and not as it bow is—a disgrace to the memory of tho first inhabitants. There is no doubt that Palestine, the once " land flowing with milk and honey," has been brought to its present barrenness and d rod at ion through the wanton destruction of all its forests.

The history of the French Provinoe of Dauphiny is in an eopeoial manner very in. struolive to the student of forestry, and full of solemn warnings to nations and districts who negleot the keeping up of a proportionate amount of forest: undeniable accounts of the conversion of fertile valleys into stoney barren wastes, and grassy slopes and forest flunked hill sides into beds of torrent's in a few years by forest destruction. Records of repeated warnings against the neglect in planting and devastation of the forests can be produoed. These warnings were unheeded by the thoughtless consumers, and in many cases have culminated in misery, desolation and depopulation. We knaw that tho high Alps of France were once forest clad, and that tho fearful torrents which have so often ended in inundations and great destruction of property and loss of life in the Alps, Oevennes and Pyrenees did not exist previous to the dwindling away of the arboreal vegetation. We know of instanoes where within a few years the torrent bed has been cut out on the very slope where only a short time ago the forest stood ; and many oases oould be mentioned in substantiation of the assertion that mountain torrents in Franoe and many other countries have followed tho disappearance of forests. It has also been noticed that the vast flocks of sheep, &c, were the ohief agents in destroying the forests and scrub, by eating the germinating trees, bushes, &o, and so preventing the natural spread of vegetation. The old trees, &3., dying out, soon gave placa to torrents which, in some instances, caused the inhabitants to.forsake tho district, taking the flocks with them, the vegetation had another ohanoe to reinstate itself, and many localities oould be cited where the torrents have disappeared as the vegetation gained a hold. Rain falling upon naked ground has very little chance of permeating the soil when on an inclined position, the drops have the opportunity of uniting at once, and soon form streams, which eventually unite into large one, cutting their way down the mountain sides, and on arriving at the bottom become torrents, oarrying everything before them, and covering.romany cases, fertile valleys with a layer of stones brought down from the mountains. The aotion "of water in disintegrating and lower, ing down the mountains of the world, whether by melting of snow, waterlogged olouds depositing their burdens on the tops, or rain continually falling, is counteracted in its effects by a provision of Nature in clothing the mountains with vegetation up to the limit of perpetual snow. If we had no results of oarefully worked experiments testifying to the advantages of keeping the mountains clad, our own reason would inform us that a covering of grass and other herbage on steep places and slopes must retard the accumulating water in its downward tendency, and greatly increase the permeability of the soil. We know this takes plaoe even with the slightest oovering of vegetation ; then, how immense must be the influence of forests on mountain tops and flanks—the deeply penetrating and ramifying roots must enable the downpouring rain to penetrate far into the soil, and the undergrowth, along with the_ leaves and branches overhead, prevent the rain from reaching the surface at onoe, which lessees the possibility of a torrent being formed by enabling the increased permeability and oapillarity of tho soil to carry the water down to the fissures of the rocks before is h s time to accumulate on the surfaco. It is in this way we oan account for the disappearance _ of springs, simultaneously with the destruction of the vegetation on mountains, for the vast quantity of water held by the decomposed vegetable stratum underlying all old forests, furnishes a supply of water to springs from one rainfall to another. It is this increased surface for the dispersion of water which prevents torrents from originating, and it was with this end in view that the administration of the mountainous departments of France instituted a systematic replaating of the mountains, and brought into existence the two branohes of arboriculture, which have been so greatly ctudied and carried out in France for a great many years, with results increasing in their success and beneficial effeots every season. These works are called Gazonnment (tho establishing of grass herbage and scrub on the mountains) and Reboisement, or the planting of trees where forests formerly stood. The destruction of forests on mountains varies in its effect in different countries; if the lowlands aro tilled and planted, and the mountains left bare, the result would be, in time, destructive torrents and floods ; for tho water - oharged atmosphere formed by the vegetation is attracted or drawn to the mountains, where it descends in tho form of rain, and not being retained and caused to penetrate it keeps to the surfuce, increasing in volutae offer every shower until it bursts its bounds and inundates everything before it. We have recently had an example of this in America. In countries without vegetation on the plains the complete annihilation of forest on the mountains would result in droughts and scaroity of water, unless those mountains were perpetually covered with snow, in which oase the melting of tho snow would supply the streams. In this province we have both effeots to look at; the vegetation is fast decreasing on the mountains, and in the oourse of time' when the heavy bush of the West Coast side has fallen before the hand of man and fire, wo would undoubtedly witness a marked deorease in the size of our rivers, and the flow of artesian wells. On the other hand, if tree-planting is carried out as it ought to be on the plains, and the mountains are neglected, then we might have tho bitter experience of Franoe and Italy. It iB the non-agricultural parts of the mountains whioh should be planted for climative purposes, leaving the accessible places for the growth of valuable timber and production of bark, <feo. The mountains of a country like thiß must be looked upon as the source of all our springs and rivers, and must not be rendered worse than useless by the ignorance of man, as was the case with the Alps of France. Chris. Mtjdd, Duncan's Nursery, Opawa.