Is the earth l>ecoming bald ? is the title of an article in the April number of the " "Victorian Review/ in which the effect of the rapid destruction of timber all over the world is commented upon. The subject is not a new one by any means. It has formed a topic of dis cussion in every Legislative Assembly in the world, and the most convincing evi dence has been brought forward to prove that those countries which neglect to protect their forests and to insist on fresh plantations, are guilty of one of the greatest blunders that a nation can commit. Wβ have but to point to the condition of Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Spain, Prance, and other countries, to be satisfied of. the truth of what has been said. " A line drawn from the Bolan Pass, on the borders of India, to the eastern coast of the Mediter ranean, a distance of upwards of two thousand miles, would bisect a tract of territory several hundred miles in width, almost exclusively composed of rainless deserts and seas of sand. The ruins of Kineveh and Babylon, of

Palmyra and Baalbec, are surrounded by wide wastes of arid wildernesses, or pestilential marshes. The whole of Asia Minor was once celebrated for the mag nificence of its forests." The same was the case with Northern Africa and Greece: The destruction of the forests in Spain has reduced what were formerly fertile tracts, to barren wildernesses. In France the most disastrous results fol lowed the destruction of the forests on the Alps and Pyrenees. "The winter rains washed every inch of surface off the mountains, and then when the bed rock had been stripped quite naked, a heavy fall of rain would rebound from the impervious declivities into the cir cumjacent valleys, and devastating inun dations would denude these of their alluvium, and sweep it into the sea." The above was an accurate picture of the condition of several districts in France not so very long ago. Such an alarming state of things naturally aroused public attention, and now the State is engaged in the gigantic task of replanting the slopes ef the Alps and Pyrenees, which previous generations had denuded of their forests in order to utilise the land for grazing purposes. America is undergoing the same expe rience. 