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Canadian Forcsiry Journal, FchTuary, 1920 



selling Crown timber; to secure proper land 

 classification ; to ascertain the real facts about 

 reforestation and to show what can be done to 

 hasten and improve the new crop. 



BEST SPECIES REQUIRED. 



We do not want inferior species to reproduce 

 at the expense of better ones; we do not want 

 money wasted on measures which fuller infor- 

 mation might prove unnecessary. We need tim- 

 ber maps and yield tables and sample plots; 



data to furnish our cruisers with when estimating 

 sale timber; establishment of working plans for 

 large untouched, unalienated areas of reserve 

 timber, such as the Yahk basin; much technical 

 information which war time has made it impos- 

 sible hitherto to secure. Forest investigation 

 must be recognized as an essential of forest ad- 

 ministration. Not for their wrecking value, but 

 as a perpetual crop must we administer the 

 great timber resources of British Columbia. 



PRAIRIE TREE PLANTING ON WHOLESALE BASIS 



Readers of the Forestry Journal who have follorved recent articles on tree planting on the 

 prairies null read appreciatively this editorial from the alert "Regina Post" : 



It is interesting to note that a committee of 

 'the Legislature under the chairmanship of Mr. 

 Murdo Cameron (Saskatoon County), spent a 

 couple of hours yesterday hearing an address 

 on the project of tree-planting, and discussion 

 of the topic. 



The subject is one which the Post has dealt 

 with in several editorials. It is a small matter, 

 in a way, and yet a very important one, inas- 

 much as tree-planting will do a great deal in 

 the way of making Saskatchewan a better place 

 to live in. Every home in the province can be 

 made more attractive and more of a real home 

 with the expenditure of comparatively little 

 money and time. And at the same time several 

 hundred dollars may be added to the value of 

 every farm. 



MORE TREES REQUIRED. 



Two considerable handicaps to Saskatchewan 

 are the cold winds which sweep over the prairie 

 in the winter time, and the hot winds which dry 

 the soil so rapidly in the crop season. The cold 

 winds of the winter make life on the farm much 

 less pleasant, and make it more difficult to care 

 for live-stock. The roads are blocked by snow- 

 drifts, and the farm folk find difficulty in getting 

 to town or in visiting their neighbors. The hot 

 winds of the summer take moisture from the 

 plowed grounds at a rapid rate. Both can be 

 greatly ameliorated by tree-planting along the 

 roads, around the homes, and in clumps at con- 

 venient locations. 



No one who has lived on the prairie needs to 

 be told the difference in conditions observable 



when driving from the open prairie into an av- 

 enue of trees. There is actually no difference 

 in temperature, of course, but the difference 

 seems to the wayfarer about thirty degrees be- 

 cause of the wind-break. The home is more 

 easily heated when surrounded by trees. Live- 

 stock can be left out in much more severe 

 weather. In the summer time the tress bring 

 more moisture to the soil and retard evaporation 

 by breaking the force of the hot breezes. 



THE MENACE OF CONSTANT WIND. 



The tree nurseries of the Dominion Govern- 

 ment at Indian Head and at Sutherland are 

 supplying millions of trees and cuttings to the 

 farmers of the province every year, and the ap- 

 pearance of the "treeless prairies" is slowly be- 

 ing altered, as everyone who travels over the 

 country knows. But the pity is that the num- 

 ber of trees set out each year is not mukiplied 

 by four or five or six. They are obtainable free 

 of charge, and each one adds sufficient value to 

 the farm on which it is planted to amply f-pay 

 the farmer for any expenditure of time or energy 

 necessary for the work. Along with the trees, 

 by the way, the nursery stations =upply full in- 

 structions as to planting methods. 



Whatever assistance the government and leg- 

 islature can give to advance the work of tree- 

 planting ought to be given. It might, for in- 

 stance, assist the municipalities in getting the 

 roads lined with trees, by providing part of the 

 money to defray the cost, just as it does with 

 actual road construction. 



