ILLUSTRATED GUIDE. 



33 



see the Dominion farrowed over its entire surface with 

 iron roads. The North "West especially, which is rapidly 

 filling up, thanks to the rush of immigrants which is 

 approaching from all parts, will be covered with a vast 

 network of roads, which will require for themselves 

 alone a greater supply of wood than all the rest of the 

 Dominion put together. Now, the North West has not 

 much wood. It is to the other provinces, already in 

 difficulties for their own consumption, that the North 

 "West must look for supplies of the necessary material. 

 It is time, then, before scarcity and ruin arrive, to set 

 before our capitalists the example of certain companies 

 in the United States. There, especially on the Pacific 

 slope, the Americans have planted millions of trees to 

 furnish sleepers and other requisite materials. Our com- 

 panies should do the same, and do it at once. I am ac- 

 quainted with certain parts of our woodlands, in the 

 neighbourhood of our earlier lines, which cannot, even 

 now, furnish wood of the size proper for these require- 

 ments. And how will it be in twenty-five, in fifty, in a 

 hundred years from this time? There will be scarcity, 

 ruin, not only for the , companies but for the whole 

 Dominion. 



In a sixth category of lands for planting must be 

 placed the prairies of the North West. Every one knows 

 that in Manitoba and in the great North West, there are 

 large districts without any timber. A few miles of 

 woodland along the rivers are the sole wood-resource of 

 the colonist ; but the quantity is very small compared 

 with the forests of the other provinces of the Dominion. 

 For three principal reasons, it is absolutely our duty 

 and our interest to sow and plant trees in these regions : 



First, because wood is wanted for the firing and 



buildings of the population. If wood is already scarce 



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