INTRODUCTION 



render more uniform the water supply, by reducing the mechanical force of 

 very heavy rain, and by means of their roots and the accumulation of humus 

 retarding the passage of water through the soil. 



PLEA FOR AN ARBOR DAY AND RE-AFFORESTATION 



This state of things can be remedied only by scientific methods of re- 

 planting, and in India and many parts of Europe a great deal is done to 

 replace the timber-trees which have been cut down, while in Canada and 

 the U.S.A. the younger generation are encouraged to plant trees on 

 Arbor Day, a day set apart in each year for that purpose. That an Arbor 

 Day will soon be instituted in this country is our earnest wish, for there can 

 surely be no better or more commendable manner of commemorating any 

 event than by planting a tree. Some barren spot will, as a consequence, be 

 made brighter, some neighbourhood will become healthier, some poor mortal 

 may perchance shelter under its welcome shade, some bird build its mossy 

 cradle among its pliant branches. 



A land without trees is as hopeless, and as barren, as a well without water ! 



The very thought is sufficient to send a shudder through the frame of any 



man or woman worthy of the name, and in view of the continual outcry 



that we are hearing as to the means to be adopted for bringing people back 



to the land, here is one of the most cogent answers to the appeal. Dr. John 



Nisbet, in his revised edition of " Our Forests and Woodlands," gives a resumi 



of the progress of British Forestry since the first edition of the book appeared 



some seven years ago, and the important question of State afforestation is 



treated of briefly but with telling effect in view of our present enormous 



imports of hewn timber for pit-wood and of wood pulp for paper-making. 



We imported over two and a half million loads of pit-wood and more than half- 



a-million tons of wood pulp in 1907 ; and if our waste lands and poor pastures 



can be afforested with profit at all, it is precisely this class of coniferous 



timber that could be grown on them, and it would take thirty million acres 



of well-managed woodlands to simply supply these, our present imports. 



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