THE ADVANTAGES OF FORESTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 6

THE ADVANTAGES OF FORESTS.

In view of the present reckless destruction of bush in New Zealand the following from Ifttrm and Field possesses quite a pathetic interest: The effect of forests upon the climate and the soil is still a moot question, and will be until much more is known of it than has yet been learned. It is a common belief fchat the shade afforded by the dense v fqliage, which prevents evaporation from the soil, and the saturation of the soil with water, which slowly percolates through the ground, are the j only benefits that accrue from a forest. But those who have spent several years in forest regions have better opportunities of knowing that these are not the only valuable services performed. A forest is a water gatherer, and, in fact, a rain-maker, and this not so much by the actual falling of rain as by the nightly condensation of moisture, which drips copiously from the leaves in the driest weather, when fain may not fall for weeks. All during the night this condensation is going on, and at daylight, or before, the overloaded foliage weeps copiously and saturates the ground. Any person who passes through the undergrowth in the early morning and some hours later will become drenched from head to foot by the dripping bushes; and the greater part of this reaches the ground, to find its way to the countless springs which supply the streams. The water that is evaporated tends to lower, the temperature of the air, and thus cools the whole region, besides returning to the air part of the moisture gatheredthrough the night from the hot winds that have swept through the trees. The moisture is thus gathered from distant places for a redistribution at the first opportunity, and thus the forests become not only collectors of moisture, but distributors of it. And consequently when they are destroyed, the hitherto moist climate becomes arid, and the former frequent showers fall no more.