DEFORESTATION AND DROUGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 306, 28 December 1898, Page 5

DEFORESTATION AND DROUGHT.

The Government Astronomer of New South Wales, Mr .11." C. Russell, has furnished another long1 official report to the head of his department, in answer to a series of questions by Dr. Ross, M.P., as to the effect of ring'barking* and deforestation on the climatology of the .colony. He "finds it impossible to arrive at tlie effect upon the humidity of. the atmosphere, from the fact that there, were no instruments to measure evaporation in the forests prior to their destruction, "but it appears to him that the recent forest destruction in the' Hay district has not caused so much evaporation as that registered in a dry year before the "wholesale destruction of forests. It is also impossible to say Avith regard to any particular forest area whether the denudation has increased or diminished the heat, because of the absence of thermometers, but if a, decided, change followed the clearing- it •would appear in the neighbouringmeteorological stations, and no such effect had been shown. As to the .effect of trees 6n_ dry weather, Mr Russell quotes experiments made in England and on the1 Continent, which showed that a chestnut-tree coveringabout sft.by 4ft. evaporated 16 gallons of water on a hot day, or the equiya-. lent to one and a half inches of rain over the ground.which the tree covered. He finds that the evaporation from water surfaces in the hottest parts of INTew Sou th Wales in 24 hours has never since"" the. records began reached, one inch. Mr, Kussell has, no fear, that what Dr. Jlqss. calls the: ' alleged . nineteen-year cycle theory' .will' fail. Every year adds proof to what has already. been advanced by him, and the apparent failure is'not so in fact. He has always made it clear that the 19 years period was not 'an• exact statement of the weather changes; here, a.nd he alleges. ; that those squatters who have/int&lligentlv followed, what he" said made1 out of it various sums ranging from £250,000 downwards. He never, heard of what Dr. Boss calls the 'cyclones-and blizzards' of this colony. ■ , t ,