Canadian Forestry Journal. March, ip20 



miines. and private individuals. Such 

 works, however, should not be mea- 

 sured by cost, but by results The 

 obliteration of the torren's of France, 

 impossible as it may have appeared 

 in the beginning, will be practically 

 accomplished with the completion of 

 the programme now adopted. Tor- 

 rential floods, which in one year 

 wrought destruction equal to the total 

 cost of stream improvement, will be 



no longer possible, and neither the 

 vineyards and farms of the lower val- 

 leys, nor that important mountaineer- 

 ing element of the population which 

 clings to upland slopes and valleys 

 will hereafter be in danger by flood 

 or enowslide. The price of one year's 

 flood carefully expended will perm.an- 

 ently add mil -ion" of acre? to the pro- 

 ductive area of France. 



Stopping Prairie Gales by Tree Planting 



" It is forty miles to water. 

 It's fust as far to wood; 

 I'm leaving the short grass country, 

 And I'm leaving it for good. " 



How many of the (h'cnu^ht-stricken 

 settlers of the arid plain.s of Southern 

 Alberta and South-western Sas- 

 katchewan will carry out the purpose 

 expressed in' the verse above? For 

 three years they have seen their 

 crops blasted by hot Avinds. Their 

 resources have steadily d.imini'^hed 

 and many of them last season have 

 been forced to sacrifice their cattle. 

 Their misfortune is larg-ely due to hot 

 winds. Stop the wind and you lessen 

 the effects of drought. 



Further east in the more humid 

 country, thousands of acres of or-rain 

 durin"- the nast three sea^^ons have 

 been lo^t thrduidi soil-th-iftnu'- caused 

 by winds. 



The iniury done by soil-driftinp' is 

 not confined to the immediate loss 

 of the crop. One storm will remove 

 more fertility from th;- ^ n\] than five 

 successive in'-'iin cr(!i)^. The time has 

 come when in all seriousness we 

 should iiinsid-r these i)r()l)lems, not 

 as local, hut as national. Fverv acre 

 of cron lost increases the cost of liv- 

 in<;-, .-ind decrease^ the ability of Can- 

 ada to carry her hea\y financial load. 



1'he most effecti\'e plan to check 

 the force of the winds is a tree- 

 plantinjx scheme emhracino- tlie whole 

 of the southern prairies. It is not 

 the plan of one man ; it is the plan of 

 many; it was recommended In- far 



seeing men before prairies were set- 

 tled. It has been discussed in all its 

 bearings for forty years. Briefly the 

 l)lan is this : Plant shelter-belts 

 around the farms and woodlots 

 around the farm buildings. 



In a certain district in Southern 

 Manitoba is a farm largely protected 

 by ])o])lar bluffs. Across the road is 

 a farm wnth a similar soil but without 

 this protection. In 1919 this district 

 suffered from hot winds. On the 

 l)luffy farm the wheat in summer- 

 fallow yielded 20 bushels per acre ; 

 the summer-fallow on the unprotect- 

 ed farm yielded 15 bushels per acre. 

 a difference of ten dollars per acre. 

 It is a conservative estimate that hot 

 winds and drought together with st^il- 

 drifting caused a loss of one hundred 

 million dollars to \\'^estern Canada in 

 IQIO. Is not the matter then of na- 

 tional importance? 



Why Soil Drifts. 



The one great cause of soil-drifting 

 is the depletion of humus by ctMi- 

 tinued cropping and pulverization of 

 the soil in C(^ntinued summer-fallow- 

 ing", rutting fihre hack in the soil 

 h\- le;i\ing ilu" land in grass for a 

 numher oi yeas will check the c\il to 

 a limited extent. This method h.is its 

 limitations, however, for there is a 

 lameiit.ihle lack ^4 cultixated irrasses 



