Dominion Forest Reserves 83 



their own forest reserves, controlled by their own 

 provincial governments. Those of the Province 

 of Quebec are very large and a source of just 

 pride to its people. 



But the urgent need for conservation has not 

 been felt all over Canada till recently. The 

 nation awoke to it when immigrants from the Old 

 World began to cover the lands beyond Winnipeg 

 with farms and wheatfields, and when civilization 

 pushed into the Northwest. 



On the plains and prairies of western Canada 

 there are no trees save those which border the 

 few water courses and those which have been 

 planted around the settlers' homes. In north- 

 ernmost Canada lie the great tundras, where sub- 

 Arctic cold permits no trees to live, and the land 

 is clothed with a low growth of reindeer moss, 

 sedges, grasses, and little short-lived flowers, the 

 sub-soil being permanently frozen. 



But eastern Canada, into which the first settlers 

 came, was densely wooded, and there the forest 

 was so thick and vast that it seemed as if there 

 could never be a scarcity of timber. 



So the earliest settler, here as elsewhere, 

 cleared his land with fire, and did not distress 

 himself if the fire ran wild, carrying destruction 

 far beyond the limits of his claim. 



Now Canada is the home of a rapidly growing 

 population, who are making houses, mines, and 

 railroads, and needing wood in great and constant 



