The French Forestry Department, according to the Poly- Ublion, are
satisfying themselves that forests directly increase the supply of water in their neighbourhood. From careful ob- servations at Senlis and Nancy, they have decided that it rains more abundantly in wooded tracts, and that while the leaves and branches give back the water quickly to the air, they pre- vent rapid evaporation from the ground, and are thus favour- able to the formation of springs. The effect of denudation upon the supply of water is a point of extreme importance, and indeed, almost involves the existence of countries like Spain and Hindostan Proper, where the fall of water has percepti-
bly diminished. That denudation had been carried too far was suspected, but about the method of its effect there has been endless dispute. The French experiments show that it is direct, and that a treeless plain, such as Castille threatens to become, and the Punjab had become when we conquered it, gradually deteriorates into a desert.
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