874 



REPOKT — 1884. 



perature aud rainfall during' the summtT months are the conditions of climati: 

 most favourable to the productions of the earth. The absence ov deficiency of on.- 

 of these elements must necessarily render climates less propitious to plants, 

 Forest lands are permanently the most protitable, and produce more abundant and 

 more uniform crops. Prairies, in lii<^h latitudes, as in ,M>.nnesota and especially in 

 Manitoba, have a <;reater rainfall and more humidity than the regions to the south 

 and south-west, and sufficient to product; tiue crops. But these are on the northern 

 limits of the prairie lands. No doubt the preference is <j:iven to prairies from tho 

 {greater facility in bringing them under culture, but the chief consideration should 

 be the permanent quality of the soil and especially of the climate, iind not the 

 facility of beginning. 



The conditions in Canada in coimect ion with forests are very different from 

 those ill old countries where, through centuries of hewing and hacking, forM> 

 have been destroyed, and especially different from regions to the parts of the 

 western prairies of America, and tiit; desert areas of the Old and New Worlds, 

 where, from the severe summer droughts, it is difficult, and in many parts 

 impossible, to get trees to grow. 



The most pressing want throughout the Dominion is the reservation of a 

 certain percentage of the pristine forests. Many efforts have been niadi', i'or a 

 quarter of a century or more, to induce the Governments of the provinces to requir- 

 from the purchasers the reservation in forests of from one quarter to onelialfuf 

 »;very farm of '200 acres. So favourable is the climate in Canada to tlu- growth uf 

 trees that when a lield has been left unfilled for a few years it is covered by man_\ 

 varieties of native Avoods. 



