6 ©n tbe Stuov of IRatural Scenery?. 



But tbe beautiful variety brought about by the culti- 

 vation of tbe soil is on tbe other hand easily lost, especially 

 in fertile countries where every trace of original nature 

 is destroyed, as witness many parts of continental Europe. 

 Dreary hedgerows, closely divided fields with a few straight 

 rows of trees here and there, is all the variety to be 

 seen. Such a monotony lacks the dignity in which the 

 monotony of nature is always clothed. Pity a country 

 where this has become a reality ; where there are no sunny 

 meadows stretching far away to the horizon, no woods 

 except those planted in squares and rows and cultivated like 

 a field of grain ; where there is no wilderness with wood- 

 land flowers, where there are no streams, no springs, no 

 woodland rivulets gushing forth from the bosom of the 

 earth. 



Knowing how the natural beauty of so many coun- 

 tries has been hopelessly destroyed, all thinking people 

 ought to work for the preservation of as much natural 

 scenery as possible ; for a country that has lost all this, has 

 lost more than the value of miles on miles of fertile acres, 

 more than any riches can ever redeem. 



In otber places man has changed the face of the earth in 

 a better and opposite way by means of building and 

 planting. The prairies of this country will some day be 

 quite different from what they are now ; they are different 

 to-day from what they were some years ago. Now, woods 

 and groves and orchards lend variety aud beauty to the vast 

 plains in many parts of the West. 



Planting of this kind, as has been amply demonstrated, 

 will also tend to regulate the climatic conditions, making 



