iLLUS'i'UATEO GUlDKi 27 



TRIED PART. 



I 



PLANTING NEW FOEESTS. 



CHAPT. R I. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



It -will, perhaps, surprise my readers to see that I have 

 remitted to the third division of my book the most im- 

 portant by far of its contents. The reason which induced 

 me to treat first of the preservation and then of the 

 restoration of our forests is this : We have still, fortuna- 

 tely, a large part of our publicr domain remaining in 

 woodlands full of fine timber. Our first duty is to pre- 

 serve these forests intact, and. where they have been 

 damaged, to restore them to their primitive condition. 

 Once assured of the possibility of keeping our rich 

 woods safe, no one will deny that it is our duty to seek 

 to restore them where such necessity exists. 



When we talk of re-planting, many a one will shrug 

 his shoulders.- Those who seem to think it possible that 

 our forests may be ruined, and that, as has already hap- 

 pened in Europe, we may sufier from a scarcity of wood, 

 are treated as pessimists. 



But in spite of this, there exists very evident proof 

 that the fears of these pretended pessimists are well 

 founded. This proof is, the complete denudation of wood 

 of certain districts of the country — so complete is it, 

 that the firewood iised there has to be carried from 

 places more than twenty leagues, and timber for building 

 from places thirty, and even fifty leagues, oflE". 



