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TREES AND TREE-PLANTING.

guarding it, and afford a meager supply of wood for its inhabitants. While the forest was thus ruined and the soil denuded, the waters after each heavy rain swept down through the valley, bringing with them great quantities of gravel, the débris of which still encumber the channel of the stream. The violence of these floods was sometimes so great that they were compelled to stop the machines for some time. But in the Summer-time another inconvenience made its appearance. Little by little the drought extended, the flow of waters became insignificant, the mills stood idle, or could run only occasionally for a short time.

About 1840 the municipal authorities began to inform their population relative to their true interests, and under the protection of better supervision the work of replanting has been well managed, and the forest is to-day in successful growth. In proportion as the re-planting progressed, the precarious use of the mills ceased, and the regulation of the water-courses was totally modified. They now no longer swell into sudden and violent floods, compelling the machines to stop; but the rise did not begin until six or eight hours after the rains began, they rose steadily to their maximum, and then subsided in the same manner. In short, they were no longer obliged to stop work, and the waters were always enough to run two machines and sometimes three. This example is remarkable in this, that all the other circumstances had remained the same, and therefore, we could only attribute to the reforesting the changes that occurred, namely, diminution of the flood at the time of rain and an increase in its flow during common times.

M. CANTEGRIL, sub-inspector of forests, in Ami des Sciences.

THE RAIN AND FORESTS.

There is nothing of greater importance to the agriculturist than rain at the proper season and in proper quantity; and science has demonstrated that the forests of a country are potent in the regulation of storms, the formation of clouds, and the descent of rain. Any thing which vitally affects the interests of the farmer and producer affects the whole State, and demands the earliest attention of the people's representatives.-New York Report of the Commissioners of State Parks.

FLOODS.

The reckless destruction of forests, so strongly condemned by many American writers, which has been practiced by their countrymen, is now bearing its fruits in the terrible Spring and Autumn floods which of late years have affected large portions of the United States. The Americans might spare much of their care for the channels of the Mississippi if they would restore the groves cut from the hills which feed its sources. To disforest a mountain slope is to devote the height to barrenness, the valley to flood, and both to parching drought when drought is most injurious.

PHIPPS.

WHEREVER the forests have disappeared, the Spring inundations of the rivers have acquired a frequency unknown before. It can not be disputed that the terrible destructive effects of the inundations of the Loire and the Vistula, of late years, must be in great part attributed to the excessive denudation of the forests.

SCHACHT, Professor at the University of Bon, "Les Arbres."

IMMENSE AMOUNT OF WATER GIVEN TO THE ATMOSPHERE BY TREES.

The amount of moisture given out by trees is immense. In some trees the upward rush of moisture from the roots is very powerful. The workmen in ship-yards frequently find in the center of a teak log a core of sand fifty or sixty feet long, an inch in diameter, and hardened to a marble-like consistency, which has been carried and deposited there by the sap in its upward course.

WASHINGTON ELM.

A few years ago a number of scientists of New England made a calculation as to the amount of water given to the atmosphere by the "Washington Elm," Cambridge, Mass. They calculated that the leaves of that tree would cover over 200,000 square feet of surface, and that they gave out every fair day during the growing season 15,500 lbs., or 72 tons, of moisture.

HEALTHFULNESS OF FORESTS.

J. B. P.

The influence of forests on the healthfulness of the atmosphere demands thoughtful attention. Plants imbibe from the air carbonic acid, and other gaseous and volatile products, exhaled by animals or developed by the natural phenomena of decomposition. These the trees, more than the smaller plants, absorb, and instead of them pour into the atmosphere pure oxygen, essential to the life of animals. The carbon, the very substance of wood, is taken from the carbonic acid thus absorbed. "Humid air," says Bequerel, "charged with miasmata, is deprived of them in passing through the forest.' R. W. EMERSON.

A MOUNTAIN cliff, a wall, or a forest, are the natural protection against the wind. In this respect the forest can not be without beneficial effect on the adjacent country; the young growth of trees flourishes, screened from the force of the wind, the arable land develops itself better, sands meet an impassable barrier, and the noxious influence of the dry winds is turned aside. It is, then, indisputable that the forests exercise a salutary influence on the temperature of a country. The sanitary condition of man and the domestic animals, as well as the growth of cultivated plants, depends on the climate of the locality. The fertility of a country depends on its supply of forest land; for on this depend the foundation of soil, the precipitation of dew, the fall of rain, the steady current of rivers, the mitigation of the evil influences of unhealthy winds, and the growth of vege tables in the fields and meadows.

SCHACHT.

TO ARREST a pestilence by quarantine, the State sternly interrupts trade, travel, and pleasure; but the far greater mortality from the increasing fickleness and cruelty of our climate can be arrested by the gentlest means. It is needed only that our broad States shall have one-fourth or one-fifth of their surface covered with trees-which, by the way, may be so distributed as to increase the value and producing power of lands. It is needed only that the road sides shall be well planted, that all hills shall be fixed forever with woods, that the rivers shall be fringed with appropriate species, and that woods shall be wood, in fact, and not struggling collections of the dying monarchs of the primeval forest. Along with a better climate will come not only the better health and longer lives, but forgotten springs will gush anew from the hills, the attenuated streams will fill their banks again— and yield us a better fish supply-and will cease to drown the valleys with floods after every rain.

DANIEL MILLIKIN.

MECHANISM OF A TREE.

A tree (and I beg my readers to follow this attempt at explanation closely-all depends upon it) receives its nourishment from the roots. These correspond to the mouth in the human frame. Now, as in the human frame the nourishment received is, after being supplied to the blood, exposed to the operation of air in the lungs before it is fit to give material to the body, so in a tree, the nourishment taken in at these tree mouths, the roots, passes to the lungs of the tree, and there, by contact with the air, is rendered fit to supply fresh material to the tree. These tree lungs are the leaves. This operation is affected by the passage upward from the soil around the roots, through the trunk, the branches, and every twig of the tree to the leaves, of a large quantity of water, containing in solution the nutriment for the tree. Arrived at the leaves, a process takes place which separates, by means of contact with the air, most of the water the roots had taken in, from the valuable nutriment, and throws off, in vapor, the surplus water into the air. At this time certain constituent portions of the air are utilized and mingled with the nourishment retained. This is all, now a small portion in comparison with what had arisen from the roots, yet retaining enough water to serve as as a vehicle back, is returned toward the roots, depositing in its way, in leaf, bark, and root, what is needed there for the growth of the tree. In these, they undergo, especially in the bark, further fitting and digesting processes before they assimilate with the substance of the tree. The water which was retained to carry them down, being no longer needed, passes out at the roots. In the back of the leaf are numerous stomates or mouths. of the provision made for evaporation by the leaves, some idea may be formed from a consideration of the number of stomata or stomates to be found in the leaves of plants. The number varies in different plants, for which variation a reason may be found in the different conditions of growth to which they are subjected in their several natural habitats. In the back of the leaf of the apple tree there are about twenty-four thousand stomates to the square inch. In the leaf of the

Of the extent

lilac there are a hundred and sixty thousand of them to the square inch. In the leaves of the cherry-laurel there are none on the upper surface of the leaf, but ninety thousand have been counted on the lower surface.

PHIPPS.

PROPORTIONATE AREA OF WOODLAND.

MEN need to be taught to plant trees, and their children to plant and love them. Owners of good lands in Maine or elsewhere will in the future learn that their bleak fields, if judiciously planted with wood to the extent of 40 per cent of area, will produce on the remaining 60 per cent more in all kinds of crops than the whole does now or can be made to do under any other possible course of treatment. Lands well sheltered can and do produce Winter wheat in Maine as well as on the new lands at the West. In accordance with this memorial, the State Legislature provided for exemption for twenty years from taxation of all cleared land on which forest trees had been successfully cultivated for three years, and maintained in a thriving condition thereafter.-Committee on Agriculture.

WHAT portion of the area of the State should be covered with forests? Economists estimate about twenty-five per cent as a suitable proportion; but this varies with the position, physical character, and commercial interests of the country under consideration. "I do not pretend that the whole of our farms should be planted in forests trees," says Hon. H. G. Joly, of Quebec; "that would be absurd. Our farms are generally too large for the small number of hands we employ ; there are always some odd corners, idle strips, stony or damp patches which it does not pay to cultivate. Begin and plant forest trees there, suiting the tree to the nature of the soil-you will find some for every kind of soil. Once planted and fairly started, they will take care of themselves, give no trouble, and increase yearly in value. If every acre of ground were covered with valuable crops, one would try and get reconciled to the absence of trees, and bow to the iron rule of our age which converts every thing into cash. But what a small proportion of all that ground is used profitably! We can find plenty of spare room for growing forest trees; they are not only the most beautiful ornaments to a country, and the most useful product of nature, giving fuel, timber, shade, shelter, retaining moisture, and a protection against droughts, etc., etc., but, considering the question from a strictly moneymaking point of view, the culture of forest trees is perhaps the best and safest investment that can be made."

NOTES.

ROADSIDE TREES.

IN Germany, France, Italy, and many other countries of Europe, as has been seen, large forests are planted annually under the direct supervision of the several governments; but besides these and private forests, trees are planted in great numbers by the roadsides. At present the total length of public roads of France is 18,750 miles, of

32

TREES AND TREE-PLANTING.

which 7,250 miles are bordered with trees, while 4,500 miles are at present being planted or will shortly be planted. On the remaining 7,000 miles the nature of the soil does not admit of tree growth. The number of trees already planted by the roadsides in France amounts to 2,878,603, consisting principally of elm, poplar, acacia, ash, plane, sycamore, and limes. In Germany many thousands of miles of roads are shaded by trees; in some parts they are forest trees, in others fruit trees. I regret that I have n't the exact statistics.

ALL lovers of trees should hold in grateful remembrance the name of Hon. James Hillhouse, of New Haven, Connecticut, who beautified that city by planting with his own hand the elms that have since made it famous.

"I HAVE always admired," says Whittier, "the good taste of the Sokoki Indians around Sabago Lake, who, when their chief died, dug around a beech-tree, swaying it down, and placed his body in the rent, and then let the noble tree fall back into its original place, a green and beautiful monument for a son of the forest.'

"

"PLANTING and pruning trees," Sir Walter said, "I could work at from morning till night. There is a sort of self-congratulation, a little tickling self-flattery in the idea that while you are pleasing and amusing yourself you are seriously contributing to the future welfare of the country."

FAMOUS TREES.

A few famous trees of this country, not named in the extract from the letter of the historian Lossing, are given here. The "Burgoyne elm," at Albany, N. Y.-This tree was planted on the day the British general, Burgoyne, was brought a prisoner into Albany, the day after the surrender. The weeping-willow in Copp's burying-ground, near Bunker Hill-This willow, grown from a branch taken from the tree that shaded the grave of Napoleon at St. Helena, now waves over that of Cotton Mather, so noted in Salem witchcraft. Copp's burying-ground is so near where the battle was fought that a number of grave-stones can be seen to-day which were pierced through by bullets fired by British soldiers in that battle. The ash-trees planted by General Washington at Mt. Vernon-These ashes form a beautiful row of immense trees, which are the admiration of all who visit the home of the "Father of his Country."

J. B. P.

THE CARY TREE-PLANTED BY ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY.

In 1832, when Alice was twelve years old, and Phoebe only eight, as these little girls were returning home from school one day, they found a small tree, which a farmer had grubbed up and thrown into the road. One of them picked it up, and said to the other, "Let us plant it." As soon as said, these happy children ran to the opposite side of the road, and with sticks-for they had no other implement-they dug out the earth, and in the hole thus made they placed the treelet; around it, with their tiny hands, they drew the loosened mold, and