218 



Canadian Forestry Journal, October, ipij. 



the sand hills towards the village 

 which was sometimes theatened 

 with engulfment. At other times 

 one might see animals in the barns 

 almost drowned in sand. 



"For a long time some means of 

 arresting these veritable avalanches 

 was sought. Engineers had been 

 there. They had studied the prob- 

 lem and been unable to furnish a 

 solution. A priest presented him- 

 self, — at that time he was about 

 sixty — and he studied the soil. He 

 asked if it were not possible to plant 

 an entire forest on these moving 

 sands. Certain pages of scientific 

 books had made him believe that the 

 thing was perhaps not impossible. 

 In any case he would try the experi- 

 ment, and he did try it. With what 

 success? I wish that some fine sum- 

 mer day you would go and see what 

 is now at Oka in place of those sands 

 of which I have just spoken. 



"M. Lefebvre engaged Indians and 

 children to go to the distant woods 

 and bring each one little sapling — 



for there are immense pine woods in 

 this country — for which he gave 

 them two sous or five sous. It was 

 a means of making these young peo- 

 ple work. All went to work; they 

 hunted from morning till evening 

 for these little saplings, not more 

 than a foot in height and M. Lefe- 

 bvre succeeded in planting on those 

 sands 65,000 pines." 



Great Results. 



Not more than 5,000 out of the 

 65,000 young trees perished, accord- 

 ing to Father Lefebvre's count. 

 Many of them to-day are from 25 to 

 35 feet high, and being thoroughly 

 protected by the priests of St. Sul- 

 pice, and standing in a country well 

 settled on all sides, they will pass 

 to maturity and afford a crop of 

 timber sufficient for all the needs of 

 the community and a means of re- 

 muneration for the owners. The 

 main object was long ago achieved; 

 the drifting sands have not only 

 been blocked but are overgrown and 

 over-laid by the forest floor and the 

 new vegetation springing up in the 

 adjacent lands under the forest's 

 protection. The fertile lands about 

 Oka are to-day free from the sand 

 menace and the possessions of the 

 township are the richer by a splendid 

 stand of pine. 



"To-day," said Archbishop Bru- 

 chesi. "there is a forest with its 

 poetry, with its incomparable charm. 



As Father Lefebvre's 

 groves of pines and 

 balsams appear to-dav. 

 They zvere planted by 

 school children on drift- 

 ing sand and have turn- 

 ed out an asset to the 

 zvhole countryside.. 



