742 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September, ipi6 



ASSINIBOINE PARK. WINNIPEG. 

 This park, with its fine groves, shows that with a little care many species of trees can be grown on 



the prairies. 



An Appreciation of the Pine 



"The pine is evidently typical of a 

 bleak and inhospitable climate. It 

 is associated in our minds with the 

 gray skies and the rude wands of 

 the North. It forms an essential 

 element of the grandest mountain 

 scenery; and enters into the com- 

 position of some of the most mag- 

 nificent scenic pictures, which the 

 great artist has painted on the can- 

 vass of this world, for the admira- 

 tion of his creatures. 



"To the offices which, in bleak and 

 elevated situations, the pine per- 

 forms, may be traced much of the 

 beauty and fertility of the earth, 

 and much even of the happiness of 

 man. Standing on the mountain 

 tops, its fringed forests catch and 

 condense the passing clouds, which 



distill from their branches into the 

 shaded soil, and, percolating moss 

 and grass into the heart of the rocks, 

 flow down by an appointed channel 

 a rejoicing stream into the valleys. 

 When the pine forests on the moun- 

 tain heights are cut down, the 

 springs and rivulets of the low 

 grounds are exhausted, and the cli- 

 mate is rendered hotter and drier. 



The destruction of the grand pine 

 woods that once clothed the Appen- 

 ines. has rendered the Papal States 

 a region of poverty, disease and 

 wretchedness. In Greece the travel- 

 ler looks in vain for the old legen- 

 dary fountains, rivers and lakes, 

 with which the classic poets had 

 made him familiar: the water 

 nymphs have vanished along with 

 their sorrowing sisters the Dryads. 



