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the Northern and Western United States have in this way statutes to encourage the 

 planting and growth of timber trees, and the effect of encouragement in this respect has 

 in the Western States been most valuable. 



Prof. Sargent, of Harvard University, tells us that " as moderators of the extremes 

 of heat and cold, the benefits derived from extensive forests are undoubted, and that our 

 climate is gradually changing through their destruction, is apparent to the most casual 

 observer. Our springs are later : our summers are drier, and every year becoming more 

 so ; our autumns are carried forward into winter, while our winter climate is subject to 

 far greater changes of temperature than formerly. The total average of snowfall is per- 

 haps as great as ever, but it is certainly less regular and covers the ground for a shorter 

 period than formerly. Twenty years ago peaches were a profitable crop in Massachusetts; 

 now we must depend on New Jersey and Delaware for our supply ; and our apples and 

 other orchard fruits now come from beyond the limits of New England. The failure of 

 these and other crops in the older States is generally ascribed to the exhaustion of the 

 soil ; but with greater reason it can be referred to the destruction of the forests which 

 sheltered us from the cold winds of the north and west, and which, keeping the soil under 

 their shade cool in summer and warm in winter, acted at once as material barriers, and 

 reservoirs of moisture." 



The influence of belts of trees on local climate is, in fact, very marked. They form 

 obstructions to and ward oft", on the one hand, the cold winds from the north which would 

 lower the temperature and, on the other hand, the parching winds which would unduly 

 raise the temperature and equally injure vegetation ; they break the effects of storms, and 

 in the winter time cause the snow to be equally distributed over the fields, forming thus a 

 uniform protective covering to the ground ; and if generally distributed over the western 

 prairies they will promote the more equal distribution of the rainfall, and will prevent 

 the streams from being dried up, as they usually become after midsummer. Observing 

 agriculturists have found that fields protected by belts of trees yield crops much more pro- 

 lific than those not so sheltered. 



In our timber regions the replanting of the pines can be to some extent left to 

 nature, but there is every reason, since the timber limits belong to the Government, and 

 a large annual revenue is derived from them, why the Government should, especially in 

 the lands which have been burned over by forest fires, institute a regular system of tree 

 planting. There is all the greater reason for this because of the fact that, after a forest 

 fire, trees of different species from those which were previously there, usually spring up. 

 The expense would be comparatively trifling, and certainly insignificant, when placed 

 beside the results which posterity would derive from it. To individuals there may seem 

 little inducement to plant pineries which may not be available to the fullest extent for 

 towards three-quarters of a century, but Governments can have no such feeling, consider- 

 ing that what would be done by them would be for the future benefit of the country and 

 a source of revenue in that future as well. What the Governments can and should also 

 do is to, as far as possible, by legislation and the insertion of clauses in their leases of 

 timber limits, prevent the occurence of forest fires and preserve the younger trees from 

 injury at the hands of the lumbermen. The experience which we are yearly realizing of 

 gradually diminishing areas of timber supply and the now nearly exhausted condition of 

 the United States pineries, make this matter a subject of pressing national importance 

 which, if our legislatures do not now take up, they will probably find twenty years hence 

 that it is too late. 



The question of tree planting must arise in our North-West, and the sooner it is 

 grappled with, the better for the welfare of the future millions who are expecting to 

 people the vast prairies west of Winnipeg. In the matter of fuel alone, its importance 

 may be estimated from the fact that there are extensive tracts of western territory where 

 the farmers journey from ten to twenty miles by waggon or sleigh in order to obtain fuel, 

 or where they have to rely solely on the wood train which at intervals supplies them ; 

 and such farmers are often exposed to positive suffering when extensive snow blockades 

 take place. The prairie farmer, indeed, very soon understands the value of a belt of 

 trees on his farm, not merely as a source of fuel and fencing, but even more as a wind- 

 break warding off the fierce blizzards in winter, and in summer sheltering his growing 



