MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 665 



buildings plant few or no trees, especially near the buildings, for 

 it is a fact well known to physiologists that all animals, human 

 or brute, require plenty of fresh air and sunshine in order to a full 

 development of their physical frames and the enjoyment of 

 vigorous health. Indeed there can be no doubt that many an 

 individual has passed away in the morning of life, and now fills a 

 consumptive's grave, who, with plentj' of pure air to breathe by 

 night and by day, with suitable exercise every da}'" with nothing to 

 shield them from the sun and the wind but the broad canopy of 

 the skies, might have lived to a good old age in the enjoyment of 

 health and strength. I rather like the idea expressed in my hear- 

 ing a few years ago, by a gentleman recently a graduate of one 

 of our Eastern colleges, now pastor of a church in a flourishing 

 town in an adjoining count}^, who said, if going to build a 

 residence for himself, he should want it to face the northeast, 

 southeast, or southwest, so that the sun might shine some part of 

 each day in every room in the house. This may be considered 

 eccentric or extravagant by some, but the suggestion seems to 

 me worthy of consideration. Pardon this digression. 



Furthermore, we want belts of forest trees, evergreens, (if we 

 can afford it,) to protect our orchards, and if our orchards are 

 large, rows of evergreens interspersed among oin- api)le trees, 

 and every man who has forty acres or more of land, wants a 

 grove more or less for the sake of the fuel and timber it will 

 afford, and for the protection it will give his growing crops a? 

 well. Should any object to planting trees as thick as recom 

 mended, let them remember that after ten or twelve years, if they 

 appear too much crowded, it will be very convenient to cut out 

 from the thickest plt\ces occasionally, as needed, and trees planted 

 as thick as they can grow to advantage will be much more valuable 

 for timber, growing taller and straighter. If it be true, as we 

 read in the Good Book, that "parents ought to lay up for their 

 children," surely no more imperative duty rests upon the present 

 inhabitants of our beautiful prairie country than to plant trees 

 for shelter, for fuel, for timber. For, treat the question of timber 

 as we may, it is a fact that should be impressed upon tlie mind of 

 every man, that as the population and wealth of the country 

 increases, the want of machinerj-, particularly agricultural imple- 

 ments, increases in a much greater ratio. In the States east of 

 us, where most of the timber is obtained for the manufacture of 

 these articles, I speak advisedly when 1 say that the quantity is 

 rapidly diminishing, and in many places it has quadrupled in 

 value in the last twenty 3'ears. Would it not be well to pause 

 and ask ourselves the question : Where are we to obtain the 

 necessar}' supply for these piirpot<es, (to sny nothing of the 

 amount required for buildings, furniturei etc.,) twenty-live or fifty 

 years hence, when the demand in this Western country- shall have 

 increased tenfold ? How much better for the rising generation, 



