During the May session of the German Meteorological Society at Berlin, a lecture on " Deforestation and Climate" was delivered by Dr. Hennig from which United States Consul-General Guenther, Frankfort, Germany, takes the following extracts:

The interest in deforestation and forestry may be called general and public. Whether forests exercise a perceptible influence upon the climate is a very old question, and even today it is not definitely settled. In many countries a drying up of climate has occurred, which is shown perhaps most strikingly in almost the whole of Africa. That deforesting has assumed constantly growing proportions in almost every part of the world is still most apparent. The climate of Greece, where today only 16 per cent of the area is covered with forests, has deteriorated. An increase of temperature and decrease of rain are noted, compared with ancient times, especially in Attica, which was thickly covered with forests about three thousand years ago, and where hardly any rain now falls, while the heat in the open air attains a degree which would make the " Olympian games " almost an impossibility. A similar condition exists in the peninsula of Sinai, where thousands of years ago the people of Israel lived in a luxuriant and fertile country and where today only forestless deserts abound. Palmyra, also once a flourishing oasis in the Syrian desert, presents today only a desolate waste of stones and ruins. In Mexico, where the Spaniards cut down the forests in the mountains, droughths, changing to devastating floods are now noticeable, especially in the vicinity of the City of Mexico. In upper Egypt, where only one hundred years ago rain was abundant, drought now usually prevails. In Algeria, where, since the middle of the last century the forests have been cut down on a large scale, dry weather has increased, and in Venezuela the level of Lake Tacarigua, to which Alexander von Humboldt drew attention, has been lowered in consequence of deforestation.

If these and other facts are kept in mind the sentence " Man traverses the earth and a desert results is understood. It must not be forgotten, however, that this applies mainly to the influence of civilization upon appearances and is not always due to climatic changes produced by deforesting.

Some authorities even deny the influence of forests on the weather and climate. It cannot be denied, however,that dense forests favor moisture and prevent the drying out of the soil to a considerable degree. At any rate, deforesting, which, in modern times assumes constantly growing proportions for industrial and agricultural purposes, is of universal importance.

Germany, with a forest area of about 26 per cent, realizes annually nearly $60,000,000 worth of timber therefrom, while the wood importations are about of the same value. The consumption of wood increases from year to year, and systematic forestry has not succeeded in keeping up the forest area of Germany. If it is furthermore borne in mind that Canada, which formerly possessed more than 300,000,000 acres of forests, has today only a forest area of about 225,000,000, it, becomes evident that the question of deforestation assumes great importance. If civilization continues to change the face of the earth the problem of its wood supply will present itself like that of coal, and force the finding of a suitable substitute.