No. 5.] THOMPSON — FOREST PLANTING. 317 



of the great plains is as yet public domain, and the respective 

 Governments can by enactment embody a system of forest plant- 

 ing as a condition of grant or sale, and if need be, for the public 

 good, may extend its requirements to lands owned by individuals 

 and corporations. It then seems to be the part of wisdom for 

 the respective Governments to inaugurate, at an early day, legis- 

 lation providing for a general system of shelter-belt forest plant- 

 ing, applicable to the Great Plains, with discretionary powers 

 vested in a special bureau of forest commissioners to make 

 such modifications as might be required for the planting, on 

 the margins of lakes, streams, hill-sides and mountain slopes. 

 And in furtherance of this plan it would undoubtedly be wise 

 to make suitable provision, in grants of land, to the territories 

 when admitted as States by the Congress of the United States, 

 and to the Provinces by the Dominion of Canada, for the pur- 

 pose of establishing one or more experimental forest stations in 

 each State and Province, under proper restrictions and conditions, 

 with provisions requiring annual reports of experiments and ob- 

 servations to be made to the respective States and Provinces and 

 to their respective general governments, which should also be 

 distributed to other nations and all scientific associations of a 

 national character, as an exchange for reports bearing on similar 

 topics. 



