the finer fruits not usually grown in orchards, I would form into a nice. fruit garden of half an acre to two acres as might be necessary. There I would have a complete collection of pears, cherries, apricots, plums, quinces all the small fruits systematically planted and carfully cultivated. This garden might be made one of the most interesting portions of the premises, to say nothing of the abundant supply of fine fruit and vegetabtes it would yield. Here the family could acquire taste for gardening as well as learn to practice it.

Then the ground about the house I would convert into a smooth lawn, which must be kept cut close all summer. This lawn must be suitably embellished with deciduous and evergreen trees, flowering shrubs, roses, &c. This is the way I preach to the farmers when I visit them, but only once in a great while with any effect. It is a shame for our well-to-do farmers that they are go behind in this matter. It makes farm life so dull and dreary a pursuit, that I am not surprised to see all the brighter boys run away from it, and our rural population, here in this healthy and beautiful western New York, growing less and less every year. Then think how much these improvements would add to the market value of the farms. A nice house, some good fences, an orchard, increase the value of a farm $20 to $25 per acre, other things being equal, but carry out such suggestions as I have made and what do you suppose it would add to the value of farms? Almost double it! This argument has some weight, it touches the pocket but the moral effect of such improvements on young people would be absolutely incalculable. I did not intend to say half so much because I know it is unnecessary.

FORESTS-THEIR INFLUEFNCE, USES AND REPRODUCTION.

BY WINSLOW C. WATSON.

INTRODUCTION.

The forests of our country, in the varied and remarkable influences they exert upon its economy, its arts, water power and agriculture, is a subject that invokes the most anxious consideration. When civilization first approached this continent, dense and massive forests, fitfully and but slightly modified by the rude efforts of the Aborigines to supply limited space for their simple culture, universally clothed the earth. The woodlands, to them-as affording wide fields for their hunting grounds-were the chief source of sustenance. The wants and habits of civilized man changed these interests, and the subjugation of the forest became his first and great purpose. This strong desire enlisted every means by which the extirpation of the woods could be the most promptly and effectually accomplished. This course was guided by a wise and necessary policy of the early pioneers. Our people have inherited this passion of their ancestors, and have pursued its dictates long after the reasons which influenced them have ceased to exist. We have persisted in a wanton and reckless destruction of our native trees, until the consequences produced by their loss have become painfully apparent, and we are now called upon to pause in our improvidence, and as far as practicable to retrace our steps.

Many countries of Western Europe have indulged in the same indiscrimi nate destruction of their forests-have suffered from their deprivationand long since, both by private efforts and the measures of their governments, have attempted to mitigate the great evils which have ensued.

The subject allures to a broad field of inquiry and speculation, but I am necessarily limited to the consideration of only a few points it embraces, and at these I can scarcely-in the space to which I am restricted-more than summarily glance. A residence during a large portion of my life in a rural district and in a land of mountains and forests, under circumstances which have rendered me at least a close and watchful observer of the phenomena that characterize them, has familiarized me with the transitions which are gradually unfolded while a woodland is in the process of subjugation by the arts and enterprise of man. My mind, for many years, has been occupied by the investigation of these changes and the effects they produce.

I have also enjoyed the peculiar privilege of being enlightened by the recollection of intelligent inhabitants of the district, whose memories trace the progress of the country from an early period in the present century,

when the forests on both sides of Lake Champlain cast their shadows upon its waters along its whole course, except in rare spots, on which slight clearings had been made by the first settlers. Now, these inhabitants discern almost the entire region denuded of its vast forests, (occasional woodlands) alone remaining, nearly to the base of the interior mountains.

Besides this source of information, I have derived much light in my inquiries from the Journal of the Pioneer of the Champlain Valley, who, precisely a century ago, was engaged in a careful and most intelligent exploration of the shores and affluents of the lake. He presents, in his daily journal, a portraiture of the aspect and condition of the country at that day with a vivid and plenary perception. The facts and the results of research and observation I have thus been able to embody, although limited to a particular section of the country, furnish data that will illustrate the influence and effects of forests in every other district.

THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS UPON THE CLIMATE AND WINDS.

An inquiry into the hypothetical affinity of trees to electricity, or their influence in promoting the humidity of a district which embraces them, does not enter into the scope of this paper. That discussion would be only speculative and theoretical, and I propose chiefly to investigate practical results. It may not be inappropriate, however, to present a few thoughts suggested by my personal observations and reflection. The fact is amply authenticated, that trees standing isolated are often highly attractive of electricity. Fatal accidents to persons who have sought shelter beneath them in thunder showers, are the events of every season. I am not aware of an instance in which buildings surrounded by lofty trees have been struck by lightning, although it is not unfrequent to observe trees thus situated blasted by the thunder bolt. If single trees possess this quality of attraction, one may scarcely resist the conclusion that forests, directing their infinitude of spires towards the clouds, must in an augmented ratio exercise the same influence. If we assume such to be the fact, its effect upon the tides of the atmosphere can scarcely be calculated. Philosophy asserts that hail is a formation by electrical agency, from the humidity held in the air; and it is stated, by intelligent writers, that districts which have been recently stripped of their woods, are now far more subject than before the forests were removed, to the visitation of desolating hail storms. My own attention has never been practically directed to this circumstance, but if correct, it is pregnant with cogent suggestions.

Aged persons assert, with entire positiveness, the fact that our climate is at this day incomparably less moist than it was in their youth, and that the occurrence is far more frequent of those burning and protracted drouths, which in this district are felt to be the most insuperable embarrassments to the successful pursuits of husbandry.

Every observant person who resides in an open country, enclosed by an amphitheatre of mountains and hills or elevated ridges clothed by forests, will remember how frequently, in sorrow and disappointment, he has witnessed the dark clouds, big with genial rains, careering over the tops and discharging their rich bounties upon the woodlands, down to the very verge of culture, when not a solitary drop falls upon the parched and famishing [AG.]

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crops. In summer, how often we notice the mists that presage the rain rising from the woodlands, and the clouds gathering above the tops of the forest-clad upheavals, and preparing to pour their contents upon the valleys. Such incidents afford abundant demonstration of the power which forests hold upon the currents of the atmosphere, and their action upon the clouds.

It is unquestionably true, that the climates of northern latitudes have been often ameliorated by the removal of the forest. The evidence is indisputable that a district occupied but partially by wood is distinguished by its earlier springs, and that the mild weather of autumn reaches almost the precincts of winter. The causes of these modifications are obvious and familiar. The dense, umbrageous covering of a wide expanse of woodland, shuts out from the surface of the earth the warm suns and balmy air of approaching spring, and thus retard, the melting of the snow and ice. While they remain beneath the trees, a frosty chilliness is imparted to the air that retains a lingering influence of winter and arrests the progress of vegetation. Hence the paradoxical proverb that prevails among the farmers amid the mountains of New England, that "there will be no warm weather while the snow lies in the woods, and that the snow will remain until warm weather." The deep snows of northern forests slowly extract the frost from the earth, while the increased temperature of the earth that ensues, is an essential agent by which the snow is melted. These facts' explain the origin and truth of the popular maxim.

In an open country, the snow soon and rapidly disappears; the surface of the soil is earlier exposed to the rays of the sun, and the warm and gentle vernal atmosphere, it soon becomes dry and prepared for the growth of plants and the processes of agriculture. It may be remembered, however, that an early spring is seldom auspicious of a successful harvest.

The ardent heat of an American summer, the sun's radiance pouring upon the earth, unmitigated by our cloudless skies and clear atmosphere, creates a high temperature in the soil that extends much below the superficial strata. This warmth, slowly reduced in the advance of autumn, by a clearly perceptible influence, modifies the temperature to a late period of the season. This phase in the character of the climate of the north is an unmingled blessing.

The shelter afforded by the forest from the force of bleak and cold winds is one of the most effective and valuable influence it exerts upon the climate. In every northern latitude this agency is felt and recognized. Stock seek the screen the woods afford from the cold and tempests. Fences and farm edifices endure many years longer protected by trees from the winds, than if exposed to their violence. Growing crops are often preserved from destruction by an interposing forest. The slight shelter from the winds created by the ornamental trees which surround our dwellings, is no less an object of beauty than of utility in the shield they create from the rude gales of our climate. No one is insensible to the comfort secured on a cold and boisterous day by the protection of even a narrow grove of trees. A large forest exerts a similar influence in softening and modifying the climate over a wide expanse of territory.