174 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



on the part of the people to benefit from them. The self-seeking 

 individualist must be taught to realize that real prosperity cannot 

 come without co-operative effort, and that co-operative effort involves 

 that the people shall have the spirit of co-operation and also regard 

 for promoting the social life of the community. 



One of the most hopeful signs of the times is the growing interest 

 of farmers in the amenity of the farm — in the making of farm homes 

 more healthy and attractive to live in and the surroundings of farm 

 buildings more orderly and pleasant. In Quebec and other pro- 

 vinces the farmers are being encouraged by the Board of Agriculture 

 to improve their environment by means of competitive awards, 

 with excellent results of a far-reaching kind. 



Every step which a farmer takes to make his homestead more 

 pleasant helps to make him a more useful citizen and a more per- 

 manent settler. The pride which he takes in his crops is a seasonal 

 pride; it comes and goes with the crops and the only permanent 

 impression it leaves behind is a possible balance in the bank account ; 

 but when, from year to year, he sees his soil becoming more clean 

 and fertile, his fences more tidy, and his buildings more trim and sub- 

 stantial than before ; when the trees he has planted grow up to be both 

 useful and beautiful, and when the community of which he is a mem- 

 ber is benefiting from his example, he begins to enjoy that sense of 

 pride that comes to all men who create permanent things. He 

 becomes more closely wedded to his farm, makes it more interesting 

 for his family to remain upon it, and develops his own citizenship. 



Farmers are in such close contact with nature that they are per- 

 haps less appreciative of natural beauty than those whose lives are 

 spent in the drab city, but it is not true that farmers prefer ugliness 

 to beauty or are vandals at heart. 



There are some farmers, as there are some city dwellers, who 

 scorn beauty, rather because of a habit of mind that counts only 

 the material value of things and not because of any lack of taste. 

 That habit usually dwindles as settlements grow older — it is stronger 

 in the new west than in the older east — but it is a real pity that it 

 exists, as much of the difficulty in keeping healthy-minded people 

 on the land is due to the disorder and ugliness of village settlements. 

 Failure more often than success accompanies ugliness and disorder. 



The work now being done by the Federal Government in help- 

 ing with tree planting in the western provinces will one day be ap- 

 praised as one of the most valuable contributions to the social welfare 

 of the west. Already thirty-one million trees have been given free 



