The Effect Of Stripping A Country Of Its Trees

The summer beata aro beginning to j dry up the springs aud brooka which ware lately so fuü and noisy, and the ' atlüution of obeerving people is agaiu turned to Ihc lact of the diminutioa, year by yuur, of the quautity of water in our streains at certain seasons, ia consequenoe of stripping tlti country of ita trees, and convertin-g the foresta into pastures and tilled lields, Almost everywhere our rivults aud rivera show, by certaiu indications iu their ühannels, that they once üowed towards thü sea with a, larger corret tiao uow. If wogo n as wo now do, we shall at lesgtb eeo mauy of our anoient water eourses as nearly obliterated as Addison found Uicm iu Italy, vvlieü he wrote : " Sometimos, misguided by the tunet'ul throng, Ilooktí'l for streams iinnort;iliiil iu H'Hlg, Tliat lost m silence n.id oblivion lio. lHiuib ara th lí louiiUúns añil tlieir channeltí 'ir, Y et ruil furever by tlio M ses' skül, int in ihe Bznuotü descrtptioa iniivmurstilV' This denuding the country, of its treea Jjas made tho riïers of Spaia for tho most part roere channcla for the wiater rains. The Quadalqviiver, which sorne poet calis a " inighty river," enters the eea at Mulagna, witliout water enough to cover the loosa black stonae that pive its bed. The lloly Land now often niisses the ' latter rain,' ar receives it but sparingly, and khe brook KodroQ is a long dry ravino passiirg'off to the eastward from Jerusaleni to descend betweon the perpondicular walls beside the niouastery of Mar Saba to the alley, of the Jordon and the Dead Sea. Mr. Marsh, in his very instructive book eutitled " Man and Mature," has selected a vast number of instaucus showing how, in the old vrorld; the destruction of the forestg has been followed by a general ridity of the countrj which they formoily overshadowed. Wbether there' aro auy examplcs of frequent rains rcstored to a country by planting proves and orchards, we cannot siy - but we remetnuör when traveling at the West thir'y threo yoars siuce to have met with a gentleman irom Kentucky, who spoko of an instance withiu his Knowledgo in which a porenuial streani had made its appearanco whero at the early settlement c;f the región thero was none. Kentucky, whuu its iirst colonists plant1cd theinaelves within its limita; was a regiou in which extonsivo prairies, burnt tver overy ycai by the Indians, predomina tui!. ThO wliibh opperate to'make tha rains inore frequent and springs moreregulariy full in u wooded country are probably moro than one. Uudor tho trees ot the forest a covering ot fallen luavos is spread ovar tbo ground, by which the rains are absorbed and gradUiilly given out to the spriugs and rivuIets. The trees also'tako up large quantities of this moisture in the ground, and give it out to the air in the form of vapor, which afterwards condenses into clouda and falls in showers. All tho snows likewise that fall in foresta are more elowly melted, and sink more gradually and ccrtainly into the eartb than when tiiey fall on the open field; On tho otber hand, the rains that fall in an unwooded región run oft' rapidly by the wuler courses, and that portion of thein which should be ressrved for a dry season is lost. - ■ i - - i -i