FORESTING IN THE CANADIAN WEST. 347 
FORESTING IN THE CANADIAN WEST. 
D. R. MCGINNIS, ST. PAUL. 
Possibly some observations on the extent of the natural forests 
and on the manner of tree planting in the Canadian west on the 
fiftieth parallel of north latitude from Winnipég to the Pacific ocean 
would be of interest to the readers of the Horticulturist. 
Roughly speaking, western Canada might be classed as prairie 
land from Winnipeg west over 800 miles, to Calgary, at the eastern 
base of the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains; and from Calgary to 
Vancouver Island, at the Pacific ocean,a further distance of 640 
miles, may be generally classed as timbered and mountainous. 
In going west from Winnipeg I was surprised to see the large 
amount of timberin western Manitoba. Quite extensive bodies of 
timber are generally found over this part of the province, consist- 
ing in the main of poplar, or aspen, with small amounts of oak, ash 
andelm. This country is well settled, and the shelter afforded by 
the timber is evidently most welcome to the settlers, nearly every 
house being situated in the protection of beautiful, leafy groves of 
natural timber. 
Notwithstanding the usefulness of the timber, I find that forest 
fires have in many parts committed considerable ravages, but on 
the other hand the breaking up of the prairies around these groves 
has effectually stopped fires, where they formerly ravaged, and the 
result in many places isathick, young growth of beautiful, tall, 
slender trees. Along the banksof the Assinaboine river, the timber 
is more varied and larger, consisting of basswood, elm, ash, oak, 
balm of gilead and aspen, with several members of the willow tribe. 
This timber growth is of considerable size and density, thinning 
out as we go westward, until by the time we reach Brandon the 
country presents more of a prairie than a timber appearance. A 
few miles before we reach Brandon is a tongue of spruce timber, 
which stretches southward from the Riding Mountains to the As- 
Sinaboine river. These spruce treesin this section nowhere become 
a forest, being found only in scattered groves or singly, but with 
their exquisitely symmetrical forms they present a most attractive 
feature of the landscape. Forty or fifty miles north of the Canadian 
Pacific in the Riding Mountains there are dense forests of tamarac 
and spruce, which furnish an abundant supply of medium sized 
saw-logs for alarge saw mill at Brandon. Nine miles south of 
Brandon there is a vast turtle-shaped rise in the prairie, which is a 
dense forest of aspen, oak andelm., This mountain looks like an 
island of solid green, rising from the midst of the prairie. 
For a few miles westward of Brandon, the country is almost 
entirely prairie, and the writer began to think he had left the timber 
for good until he reached the Rockies, but in this he was mistaken. 
Soon rising out of the prairie were seen isolated groves of from one- 
tenth of an acre to one hundred acres, and after getting a few miles 
further westward a section was reached of which at least seventy- 
five per cent was forest. This country is already fairly well settled, 
and beautiful farms are being opened up in the openings hetween 
the timber. For the next 150 or 175 miles west through the eastern 
