20 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



a Forestry Branch of the Dominion Department of the Interior. I am glad to say- 

 that that Forestry Branch during the last seven or eight years has been able to plant 

 millions of trees in the prairie districts of our Dominion, and as a general rule these 

 trees have been successful, and show that it is quite possible, even on the treeless 

 plains, and on what has been supposed to be our semi-arid region, it is possible to 

 produce trees sufficient to shelter the homesteads and barns of the settlers. 



I am also glad to say that we have been able, by the work of the Department 

 of the Interior, and my own Department of Agriculture, to show, not only that we 

 can .plant shelter trees, but I am in a position to-day to say that we can produce 

 fruit trees in the far northern region of our western country, where up to a few 

 years ago it was supposed to be absolutely impossible for the settlers to grow any- 

 kind of fruit fit for human use. This is a triumph I will not say of forestry but of 

 horticulture of which I am proud of as a member of the Government of Canada, that 

 it has been able to show such success. 



A word or two in regard to forestry and agriculture, and as Minister of Agricul- 

 ture I am particularly interested in that science. 



I have dwelt very shortly on the importance of forestry production in the west,. 

 for the agriculture of our treeless plains. Let me say a word here for the Province 

 of Quebec in regard to the importance and necessity of forestry for the agriculture 

 even of the eastern provinces. Perhaps not so much in the Province of Quebec,, 

 but still a little in the great plain of the St. Lawrence, and much more in the older 

 parts of Ontario. There is no doubt to-day that the farmers of these two provinces,, 

 are suffering from the fact that their forefathers swept the forests out of existence 

 over large areas of what is at present cultivated land. It is not necessary in this 

 country especially, where, as in Ontario and Quebec, stock raising and keeping is- 

 the basis of agriculture, that it is absolutely necessary for the farmer to have abun- 

 dant pasturage and forests throughout the hot season, as well as a good supply of 

 water for his stock throughout the summer. What is the condition of affairs in many 

 portions of these two provinces? In the old days on the hills and slopes and even 

 down through the valley there were large bodies of woodlands which conserved the 

 moisture and prevented the too rapid melting of the snows in the spring, and great 

 blocks of comparatively swamp land, which held like a sponge the water trickling 

 down through the whole season to supply the lower lands and pastures with a con- 

 stant, unfailing and sufficient supply of moisture for the creeks, rivers and lakes of 

 the country. As these bodies of wood have been cut away and the valleys denuded 

 of trees, the result has been to change entirely the condition of the creeks, streams- 

 and rivers, so that while in former days they were constant in their flow, and had 

 an abundance of water throughout the whole season men living to-day can tell" 

 you that the streams are dried up in the hot months of July and August where in 

 earlier years there was a constant supply of water. The result is that to-day the- 

 pastures are dried and burnt in summer at the very time when their supply of food! 



