124 EUEAL LIFE IN CANADA 



fish nor fowl we need. The fear of famine for the 

 world is past, but the dawn only is breaking of that 

 bright morning when the earth shall yield her increase. 

 The whole wide earth shall yet become one great garden 

 of God, fertile and beautiful. 



Reclamation shall yet take place by irrigation of 

 millions of acres now thought worthless, and of other 

 millions by drainage; rich bottom lands shall be pro- 

 tected from river overflow by levees, and dykes reclaim 

 the fertile silt of lake and sea. 



Conservation of soils from erosion, conservation of 

 the fertility of soils and of the means of enrichment of 

 soils, conservation of streams and forest and climate, 

 shall become universal; and the woods crowning all 

 the hillsides shall be peopled with plumaged birds and 

 fur-clad animals yielding regulated tribute to man. 



The work of the wizards of agriculture in the de- 

 velopment of grains, grasses, roots and fruits, shall go 

 on until every vegetable product shall exceed present 

 standards as far as the apples of Annapolis surpass the 

 wayside crab. 



The work being done by national commissions in 

 searching all lands for every plant and shrub and vine 

 and tree suited to the climatic conditions of other coun- 

 tries shall become universally successful until each 

 country shall find itself, as John Reade has sung of 

 Canada : 



Binding the charms of all lands that are rarest, 

 Like the bright cestus of Venus, in one.* 



All that is best in each national system of agricul- 

 ture the patient labor of China, where even now no 



*John Reade, "The Prophecy of Merlin." 



