120 THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



d^rre by placing before the public the necessary information with 

 regard to the value and feasibility of such planting, and the profit 

 that would result to the planter. 



How to popularize the study of forestry among the sons and 

 daughters of farmers was also considered, and the meeting was of the 

 opinion that the introduction of a class-book on this subject into our 

 common schools would do more than anything else to impart knowledge, 

 a,nd so awaken an interest on the subject ; and upon motion of Mr. 

 Beall the meeting requested the President and Directors to confer 

 with the Honorable the Commissioner of Education upon the intro- 

 duction of such a class-book. 



"THE FUTUEE OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO. 



BY RICHARD STEPHENS) PORT DOVER. 



There are two important considerations to be thought of in making 

 thoice of a home for life, but are too often overlooked by emigrants 

 and settlers ; these are the geography and geology of the country they 

 adopt as their future home. People make a trip to Muskoka, Manitoba 

 or Dakota, and stay a week or two, generally in the pleasantest time 

 of the year. The country visited looks fresh, green and smiling. 

 There is the charm of novelty about it. They take a spade and turn 

 Up the soil, say in Manitoba, and find it is of the richest description. 

 They are assured by old settlers that it is fifteen feet deep, and there 

 is no doubt of it. It is inexhaustible, and the waving fields of grain^ 

 promising a yield of forty or fifty bushels to the acre, testify in its 

 favor. They do not see the snows of winter burying this fair scene 

 two or three feet in depth, with the thermometer making a temperature 

 •of 50° or 60° below zero, and the shrivelling blizzard teariing across 

 the plains, almost taking away the human breath, and fraught with 

 danger to all delicate organizations, whether of animal or vegetable- 

 life. They do not see the resistless tornadoes sweeping past, and 

 leaving nought but desolation in their track ; nor the plague of grass- 

 hoppers, consuming every green thing; nor the teams of oxen and 

 horses during the spring and fall floundering through the mud almost 

 as deep as the virgin soil. These, and many other serious obstacles to a 

 pleasant life — and life can be lived but once — do not strike forcibly 



