Chapter VII. 



MISCELLANEOUS RELATIONS. 



RAPID THAWS. 



The following extracts from a report for 1889 of the department of 

 the interior of the Canadian government shows the influence of the 

 change from warm to cold weather not only on forest trees but on 

 other plants : 



Considerable attention has been paid to this subject during the past 

 year, and there has been urged on the department of agriculture the 

 desirability of the establishment at some point in the southwestern 

 portion of the Northwest Territories of a farm or garden for con- 

 ducting experiments on this line. Failure in tree culture so far as 

 tried seems to be owing not to the severity of the winters, nor to the 

 droughts of the summers, but to the winds. Those in the winter 

 known as "" chinooks,"' which cause the sap to rise and the buds to 

 swell, being followed by a lowering of the temperature (in some cases 

 very rapid), prove destructive; and during the summer there are 

 often high, dry, hot winds which blow continuously for several hours 

 and which seem to dry up the young trees. By planting in close 

 clumps the native trees which will grow (cottonwoods and others), 

 and among them those ornamental trees which are so much to be 

 desired, these difficulties will probably be overcome, and in time it will 

 be found what ones are best suited to the district. 



The great difficulty which at present impedes the cultivation of 

 large plantations of forest trees in Manitoba and the northwest is 

 climatic. In early spring, delightfully soft, balmy days, something 

 like the maple-sugar Aveather in Ontario and Quebec, awaken the 

 young trees to life and cause the sap to run; but then suddenly a 

 terrific blizzard from the north and northwest comes down and 

 freezes up the sap and destroys the trees. Professor Saunders is 

 now engaged in experiments with a view to overcoming this climatic 

 obstacle. I have thought that by planting the young trees very 

 closely together, or by sheltering them during their earlier seasons, 

 as is done in the case of the seedlings at the model farm at Ottawa, 

 this trouble might be gradually lessened; or, willows or cottonwood 

 might be planted with the young trees as a shelter-belt protection for 

 them against these early spring frosts and sudden and extreme 

 changes of temperature. As yet, of course, we have no practical 

 experience in the northwest on the subject, and can only base any 

 action we may take upon knowledge obtained from what has been 



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