Forest Devastation 23 



tinue to be as rapid as it has been, serious lack of most 

 useful material will result. 



One of the most universal, if not the most destructive 

 forms of forest devastation is the clearing of land which is 

 not suitable for anything but the growing of trees. Canada 

 has vast areas which can never be good farm lands. In 

 many places these have been opened to settlement, and the 

 settlers, after taking a crop or two and thus exhausting 

 the fertility laid up by nature within a few inches of the 

 surface, have found crop growing unprofitable or impossible. 

 The abandoned farms of the New England States, and of 

 some parts of the eastern provinces of Canada, have passed 

 through this history. The western provinces have not 

 suffered so much, but even on the prairies we sometimes 

 see stretches of drifting sand being plowed up, which will 

 not only prove unprofitable but will also be a menace to 

 the surrounding districts. 



Besides whole areas unsuitable for cultivation, almost 

 every farm has some land that would be of most good 

 left in forest. River valleys, hillsides and rough, rocky 

 or wet places are often not only useless but unsightly, 

 or sources from which the well-cultivated land gets 

 a perpetual supply of weeds. These places should either 

 be left wooded or else planted with trees, so that they could 

 protect the better parts from wind, form a permanent 

 source of timber for fuel or other purposes, and at the same 

 time beautify the surroundings. Every farmer, by plant- 

 ing these waste places, will do his part in restoring the 

 balance between cultivated land and forest. 



