Show FORESTS AND RAINFALL A correspondent of the san fran cisco dieco bulletin from the foothills foot hills of butte county advances ces the proposition that in the sierra where the original timber has been cleared off a second growth hes has sprung up tip which has more than twice the retaining capacity for moisture mo lature of the first growth from this he deduces that the alarm about the denudation of our mountain forests lands lairds to is unfounded in fact says the bulletin be artt tt this theory mainly to the influence of the railroad company which alma aims to get government rangers to watch its timbered grant lauds lands any one familiar with the methods of the railroad companies will accept the general that it would be prompt to avail itself of any plan for shifting hitting its burdens upon i the he government or the public Pes feasibly sibly there may te le something in this ideas idea although it may look a little far for farfetched fetched yet it is understood that often it la is necessary necee eary to scrutinize byways as well as highways to get at railroad sc scheme homel government rangers might not take it directly upon themselves to protect railroad timber but indirectly their supervision of au adjacent jacent sections would tend to that result aside from this however it may be admitted that our correspondents views are partly right and par partly Y wrong the result would depend much upon local conditions no doubt in many portions of northern california am where the rainfall especially in the ig 9 mountains is abundant a mi second cond growth would soon cover the ground after the clearing of the original forest A like fact may often be observed in the redwood forests along the coast there where the annual precipitation la Is profuse and the climate and soil are Z naturally damp the redwood to tends ads to reproduce ace itself in other localities the f contrary app appears earr in the contra costa range for instance where the natural moisture I sture to is less the clearing of the redwoods is not inot followed to any great 1 extent by the appearance of a second growth grow tb the same will be found true in IB a greater ri ater or less leas measure of the forests of t the h 4 sierra and of other mountain ranges mus where any tendency to aridity exists it gilr undoubtedly prove true that the wholesale destruction of for list ata will not be followed by renewal but bat by permanent denudation and eli ell matio matto changes it might be safer to destroy the original MOunt mountain AIU forests la northern chaa in southern california in the ranges of the interior tales gates and territories where aridity is more pronounced it would be a most dangerous experiment in such eases cases only a judicious thinning thin of the larger growth should be permitted on any conditions even in moister regions it would be better economy to confine cutting to the larger timbers timber giving the smaller opportunity to mature instead of that the rast past policy has baa been to cut indle indie criminal ely for I 1 lumber u aber or of f uel fuel pu apok as and complete the dett destruction ruction by sheep browsing and fires it Is time for a definite and intelligent system of forestry it way may be both preservative and reproductive in scope in ID many malay Portio portions neof of france forestry now in eludes at not only the preservation of the natural growth but re planting on a large larg scale escale in the latter work due attention is given to the species used medicinal and aromatic plants are included and become commercially im por tant this may be somewhat in advance of present needs on this coast but it indicates the tendency in countries where necessity has put the problem of forestry more forcibly be fore the people we can afford to take lessons from the larger experiences of these european countries by avoiding their past errors we may also avoid some of their present ne essl tiec itier |