, and single
trees, which act in the same manner, in attracting the moisture from
the atmosphere to the earth, in rain and dew. In Rajpootana and Sinde
no prevailing wind, I believe, comes from any sea nearer than the
Atlantic ocean; and there are but few trees to attract to the earth
the little moisture that the atmosphere contains. The rain that falls
over these countries is not, I believe, equal to more than one-third
of what falls over the districts, supplied from the Bay of Bengal, or
to one-fourth of what falls in those supplied from the Gulf of
Cambay. Our own districts of the N. W. Provinces, which intervene
between those north of the Ganges and Rajpootana, have the advantage
of rivers and canals; but their atmosphere is not so well supplied
with moisture from the sea, nor are they so well studded as they
ought to be with trees. The Punjab has still greater advantages from
numerous rivers, flowing from the Himmalaya chain, and is, like
Egypt, in some measure independent of moisture from the atmosphere as
far as tillage is concerned; but both would, no doubt, be benefited
by a greater abundance of trees. They not only tend to convey to and
retain moisture in the soil, and to purify the air for man, by giving
out oxygen and absorbing carbonic acid gas, but they are fertilizing
media, through which the atmosphere conveys to the soil most of the
carbon, and much of the ammonia, without which no soil can be
fertile.
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