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THE CANADIAN HORTICULTDEIST. 



ment of nations that the vital interests 

 of the State is in the hands of her 

 ministers, and that these should, as in 

 duty bound, be thoroughly alive and 

 wide awake to those interests. We 

 would humbly suggest, therefore, that 

 the influence to be brought to bear 

 on a people for the advancement of any 

 great public improvement might be : 

 1st. Limited measures, bearing mildly 

 on the subject to be advanced, may be 

 I)assed in the Legislature of our country 

 advising and offering inducements. 

 2nd. Statistics and reports as to the 

 actual state of the country in this par- 

 ticular might be authorized to be made 

 and sent in to the minister of the de- 

 partment, effected at greater or less 

 intervals of time. Other forms of in- 

 ducement and encouragement we shall 

 further consider subsequently, but it is 

 evident that simple means backed up 

 might sufficiently influence to move in 

 the proper direction. We will now in 

 the meantime, as briefly as possible, 

 proceed to consider some of the advan- 

 tages of tree planting. 



And these will appear to be : 1st. To 

 embelish and beautify the landscape. 

 Of the force of this statement we are 

 all more or less keenly sensible whose 

 homes are happily cast in the midst of 

 the attractions. The converse of this 

 is to be witnessed by the denizens of the 

 trackless prairies of Central America. 

 2nd. To provide for the use of the in- 

 habitants timber and fuel for mechanical 

 and domestic uses. For these purposes 

 alone an abundance of fine timber may 

 be the means of saving to a country 

 many millions in value annually. 3rd. 

 To regulate and modify the climate of 

 the country. That forests have an 

 effect upon climate is abundantly at- 

 tested by the best of proofs. See for a 

 full and satisfactory statement of this 

 whole matter ^Hhe report upon forestry'' 

 made to the department at Washington, 

 1877, by F. B. Hough, Commissioner. 



We are indebted to this admirable and 

 exhaustive work for much of our sub- 

 ject. A work that should be in the 

 hands of every studious citizen of our 

 country. Though it is not meant that 

 trees alone make the conditions of the 

 climate of a country, yet it is meant 

 that they are important recognized 

 factors in the distribution and modifi- 

 cation of climate. 4th. To encourage 

 and distribute rainfalls. This phase of 

 the subject has had given to it much 

 scientific and mature attention of late, 

 and it is a subject that is in every way 

 worthy of attention, for what matters 

 it though our country be never so fer- 

 tile if our rainfall be insufficient or very 

 poorly distributed 1 These and each of 

 them should be inducements or argu- 

 ments abundant to the inhabitants of 

 any country to be studious and lavish 

 in their efforts at tree planting in their 

 midst. Surely none of us wish to have 

 brought upon us by our own efforts the 

 converse of this state of things ! For 

 a moment we will now look at the na- 

 ture and the extent of the obligation to 

 plant trees, and we can get perhaps the 

 best view of this kind of obligation by 

 considering it as 1st, pecuniary, 2nd, 

 physical, and 3rd, moral. The pecuni- 

 ary argument is the money view or 

 estate argument, and of course is at 

 once a very potent one. It may in- 

 clude all the direct advantage to be got 

 from the trees in the shape of fruit, 

 and its immediate effects, also, in the 

 shape of beauty. This is a very ex- 

 tensive consideration, and yet it is 

 lowest of all the arguments, and con- 

 sequently we bring it on first, and also 

 because it is the argument that is most 

 readily appreciated. It is endless in 

 its relations to our material interests, 

 and is therefore a fit and proper subject 

 for the highest encouragements of the 

 State, for if it is not, then what isl 

 The second or physical argument gi'ows 

 out of the firsts and is somewhat de- 



