202 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



them tested by coimoisseurs. Nine out 

 of eleven persons preferred the Lindley. 

 — Prairie Farmer. 



THE RELATIONS OF FORESTRY TO 

 AGRICULTURE. 



BY JOHN A. WARDER, M.D. 



[Journal of American Agricultural Association.] 



The plodding farmer of our country 

 will ask what possible relation can exist 

 between the wild, unbroken forest and 

 the smiling, fruitful farm. Nor is such 

 a question at all surprising, especially 

 from any of that large class of American 

 farmers who have spent their lives and 

 bestowed their strength in the laborious 

 efforts connected with the clearing of 

 our broad tracts of arable land. Most 

 naturally, and in all simplicity, may 

 one of the pioneers of our country ask 

 such a question 1 These forests have 

 been an obstruction to his progress ; 

 he has been taught to consider them 

 hindrances to agriculture that must be 

 removed at any cost, before he can 

 bring into play the very first appliances 

 of his art ! Yes, truly, they are so ; 

 and yet it is equally clear to those who 

 can look beyond the limits of the corn 

 field, that most important relations do 

 exist between the so very different con- 

 ditions of the earth's surface, as are 

 seen in the forest and field. Their re- 

 lations are manifold and most intimate, 

 and the dependence of the latter upon 

 the former becomes more and more 

 important, and is more and more mani- 

 fest, as we advance in our study of the 

 scope of the broad field of agriculture, 

 and we appreciate that forestry is in- 

 deed, but a province of agronomony — 

 and that the one is embraced by the 

 other — of which it is a most important 

 component part. Thus we may learn 

 the relations of forestry to agriculture. 



Let us reply to the query by asking : 

 What were agriculture without for- 

 estry ? * * * Simply, an impossi- 



bility ; or, at the best, a constantly 

 increasing struggle against difficulties 

 and hindrances whenever in any exten- 

 sive region the transformation of the 

 natural woodlands into open tillage 

 fields passes beyond a certain limit. 

 To that point, be the ratio greater or 

 less, according to the natural formation 

 and surroundings, as well as the breadth 

 of the territory in question, forests are 

 a stern necessity, and they are an abso- 

 lute requisite to our permanent success 

 in any well regulated system of agri- 

 culture. 



And why so ! is it asked ? * * * 

 Because forests modify the climate ; 

 because they are the great regulators 

 of the temperature and of the moisture 

 of the atmosphere about us, and these 

 are elements of necessity to our success 

 in the management of vegetable life, 

 for which agriculture exists. 



Forests are the reservoirs and the 

 conservators of moisture, and the source 

 of continued supply to the springs and 

 streams and rivers of the continent. 

 Without their presence, in due ratio, 

 these essential and life-giving currents 

 would soon suffer in their continuous 

 flow, and would eventually disappear, 

 leaving desolation in their track. 



Mahomet was right when he uttered 

 that forcible apothegm — "The tree is 

 father to the rain," by which he meant, 

 of course, trees in the aggregate. * * * 

 Trees in forest masses attract, receive, 

 and retain, and then gradually diffuse, 

 moisture. The precipitated water is 

 thus husbanded instead of being wasted 

 by rapidly escaping, as it must do, from 

 a bare slope, and carrying with it the 

 accumulations of a soil that has re- 

 quired ages in its preparation for our 

 use. 



The true and proper forestal condi- 

 tions of the surface of all well-regulated 

 woodlands, render mountain forests the 

 especial guardians and reservoirs of 



