1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. 213 



the maintenance of the soil-fertility, accomplished by scientific 

 methods of cultivation, and the combatting of those factors 

 which reduce the productivity by destroying the soil products, 

 namely insects, plant diseases and weeds. We must put an end 

 to exploitive farming, the taking out and not putting back the 

 equivalent, which is nothing more or less than stealing the nation's 

 wealth; and the farmer who exploits the fertile soil of Canada 

 must be shown that he is criminally taking away the future 

 subsistence of the generations to come. 



Forests. 



The forests of Canada were responsible for the foundation 

 and the early history of the nation, for without the forests there 

 would never have been that great natural resource of fur- 

 bearing animals which lured the first wealth seekers and pioneers 

 to this land rich in forest, river and lake. The forests will be 

 responsible for the future prosperity of Canada, for upon their 

 conservation depends the conservation of the land and water. 

 They conserve the land in virtue of their great function as 

 natural filters, allowing the gradual running away of rainstorms 

 and melting snow, and in the place of wash-outs and floods 

 sweeping away the fertile soil b}' erosion, a continuous steady 

 flow of water is provided and maintained, and thus the water 

 which we shall reqmre more and more as our natural 

 fuel supplies become more exhausted, is regulated in 

 the best possible manner for the purposes of obtaining 

 power. The maintenance and conservation of our natural 

 water supplies is primarily dependent upon the conserva- 

 tion of the forests, and on the conservation of the water 

 supplies depends the productivity of the land. What would our 

 great western provinces produce if they were not watered by 

 the rivers having their origin on the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains, the origin and flow of which rivers is directly due to 

 the forests covering those mountains? The setting aside of the 

 greater part of those forests on the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains as a reserve is one of the greatest prospective actions 

 ever taken by a government. In addition to the intimate relation 

 between forests and the land and water, their effect upon the 

 climate and also upon the health of the people are to be con- 

 sidered. By the majority of people one of the chief functions of 

 the forests is, of course, their utilization. The varied industries 

 which depend upon forest products, from the publishing of a 

 newspaper to the building of a railway, render it still further 

 necessary that we shall not only conserve but utilize in the 

 most economical manner possible and, by afforestation of 

 deforested areas and of areas unsuitable for agriculture, shall 



