94 CANADIAN F OEE ST EY ASSOCIATION. 



well as the adjacent springs and lowlands, from drying up. These belts of 

 trees and shrubbery produced those cool, shady nooks, which trout delight 

 in, and at the same time created those soft-velvety, shady covers and feed- 

 ing grounds so essential to the requirements of grouse, woodcock and snipe. 

 The land owners, having had to work so hard to clear their land for crop- 

 ping purposes, by degrees -seemed to develop the mania that every tree, 

 every bush, every shrub, was an enemy which must be ruthlessly destroyed. 

 They certainly have lived up to their belief, for there are many farms on 

 which there are not trees enough left to form even a shade for the cattle 

 during the heat of the summer. This deforestation has been so continu- 

 ously presisted in that the banks and borders of many a formerly excellent 

 trout stream have been entirely denuded of their sheltering belts of trees, 

 shrubs and bushes. The effect of this tree butchery has been most disas- 

 trous to the interests of both fish and game. The cutting away of the 

 trees has also allowed the sun to dry up the neighboring springs, 

 which formerly fed the streams, and thus lessened the flow of water, and all 

 this without, in many instances, rewarding the farmer with one single foot 

 of extra arable land. 



If nothing is done to offset this wholesale destruction of wods, which, 

 alas, is still- being carried on, there soon will be no suitable covers, either 

 to shelter the game or in which they can breed, and therefore we shall have 

 no game birds left except the migrating sea-fowl. The trout, too, will 

 never be as plentiful as they might be, or as they should be, unless some- 

 thing is done towards replanting the belts of shade trees along the borders 

 of the streams. It would be a great boon to the country if the Govern- 

 ments would secure and retain a strip of land, about thirty-five or fifty feet 

 wide, along the banks of every trout stream, and replant trees thereon 

 wherever they were needed. No doubt it would be next to impossible to 

 carry out this scheme on a portion of the lands already granted, owing to 

 the exorbitant demands some grasping souls would make for compensa- 

 tion for the taking of such strips of land, notwithstanding the fact that in 

 their present condition they are of little or no value, and that the scheme, 

 if carried out, would greatly enhance the value of the owner's property. 

 It would be unreasonable to ask any Government to perform an impossi- 

 bility, but we can and should ask the Federal and Provincial Governments 

 to provide that in all future grants of land such strips along the border of 

 all streams be reserved for the purposes named. The course proposed 

 would ensure attractive covers for grouse, woodcock and snipe, as well as 

 to vastly and permanently improve the trout fishing. So plainly do the 

 land owners in some sections realize the dreadful mistake they have made 

 in the past that they are ready and willing to freely give such strips of their 

 land in order to have them replanted with trees. 



The relationship between Forestry and the Preservation of Fish and 

 Game, although very close in the past, of late years has become insepar- 

 able, owing to the latter science having been extended so that it now in- 

 cludes the care and preservation of the insectivorous and other useful 

 birds. These birds were ever Nature's foresters. From time immemorial 

 they have taken entire charge of the woodlands, preventing their destruc- 

 tion by the ravages of the insects, as well as carrying on the work of prim- 



