16 



have some slight, though even then, but an outside and superficial idea of what a forest 

 fire means. 



If fire should obtain any serious headway there, Ontario with ^aeas may well say, 

 " Jam proximus ardet 



Ucalegon.'' 



It is frequently said, " Ontario has plenty of forests ; there is yet fifty per cent, 

 remaining ; let us attend to more important afiairs." Most of the fifty per cent, remain- 

 ing might, so far as it is likely to benefit the older portions of Ontario, as well be 

 in Greenland. Much of it is in Algoma — much more far in the Parry Sound or the 

 North-West territory, where it will have little climatic influence here. Or, it is said, 

 " Some day ; there is yet no need." Now, in August is wheat harvest ; what would we 

 I think of one who said, " Oh, we don't need wheat till August ; we shall look after it 

 then, and sow some ! " But all agree that we shall some time need to grow forest in 

 Ontario. If so, now is late enough to plant, for before we reap that crop, with some 

 trees twenty, some forty, some seventy years must pass. And it is agreed that some 

 time we shall regret more forest was not preserved. If so, it is none too early to see 

 about it, for in a few years all worth preserving will be far beyond the reach of such an 

 effort. Are we to sit down to make our musket when the enemy is charging up the 

 slope ? 



In a word, the great forest to the north and north-east of Ontario, our principal 

 forest reserve, as the one which feeds the sources of most of our streams east of Toronto, 

 is likely under present conditions to disappear much more rapidly than did the more 

 heavy and more deciduous woods in our older land. Thus, it appears to me, as one who 

 has had considerable experience in clearing land, and much opportunity to observe the 

 effects, and who has since given much study to the question of loss by over disforesting, 

 and possibility of replantation, that the whole of Ontario is in great danger of heavy loss, 

 unless action be in time taken by some authoritative and powerful hand. There is 

 yet time to take this action, and the following pages are intended to present in order : — 

 1. The scientific aspect of the case. 

 . 2. Corroborative evidence from other lands. 



3. Measures being taken elsewhere in pursuance of the same object. 



4. Some suggestions as to the action necessary. 



The Mechanism op a Tree. 



A tree (and I will beg my readers to follow this attempt at explanation closely all 



depends on it) receives its nourishment from the roots. These correspond to the mouth 

 in the human frame. Now, as in the human frame the nourishment received is after 

 being supplied to the blood, exposed to the operation of air in the lungs before it is fit to 

 give fresh material to the body, so in a tree, the nourishment taken in at these tree- 

 mouths, the roots, passes to the lungs of the tree, and there, by contact with the air is 

 rendered fit to supply fresh material to the tree. These tree lungs are the leaves. 



This operation is effected by the passage upward, from the soil around the roots, 

 through the trunk, the branches, and every twig of the tree, to the leaves, of a large 



