8 INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS. 



aspects. Of all the raw materials which nature supplies for the elabora- 

 tion of human art, wood is undoubtedly the most useful, and at the same^ 



time most indispensable to social progress Upon the whole, 



taking civilized Eiirope and America togetJier, it is probable that fi'om tzuenty 

 to twenty-five per cent, of zvell-zvooded surface is indispensable for the main- 

 tenance of nonnal pJiysical conditions, and for the supply of materials so' 

 essential to every branch of Juiman industry and every form of social life, 

 as those which compose the harvest of the woods. 



In a littoral region such as England, with abundance of coal for fuel,, 

 a humid climate, and easy access by water transportation to timber sup- 

 plies, the area of woodland necessary may be small ; but in a region^ 

 like the Northwest, remote from the sea, with a small rain-fall, and hot, 

 dry climate in summer, and extreme severity in winter, a scarcity of 

 coal for fuel, and where farm animals require shelter for more than half 

 the year, the necessity for a large area of woodland is very great. So- 

 much so, that large bounties are offered for the planting of timber, and 

 efforts are made to avert the want and suffering experienced by the- 

 scarcity of timber ; yet, at the same time, the publications sent abroad 

 from that region tell of the advantages of a treeless region, and treat of 

 woodlands as an absolute evil which the immigrant to the West may 

 avoid. In this connection, it may be well to glance at some of the 

 arguments advanced by the enlightened citizens of that region, showing 

 the needs of timber-planting. 



Mr. Leonard B. Hodges, in a communication addressed to the Gov- 

 ernor of Minnesota, January, 1874, takes three counties in that State as 

 a fair average of twenty-fiv? counties in Western Minnesota in which, 

 timber-planting may be regarded as an urgent necessity. In these 

 counties there is but one tenth of an acre of timber to one hundred, 

 acres of prairie. 



Mr. Hough also says of Minnesota : * 



The most urgent need of timber-planting is felt not merely to create- 

 a supply of material for fuel and farm purposes, but to afford protection 

 to man and beast, and to farm and orchard, against the fierce northern 

 winds of winter and the drying southwest winds of summer. The 

 necessity of timber-belts as a shelter from storms was never, perhaps, 

 more severely felt than in a storm of memorable severity which swept 

 over several of the Northwestern States on the 7th, 8th, and 9th of 

 January, 1873, where, in the absence of such protection on the prairies, 

 suffering and death were reported from very many points. This storm 

 was particularly severe in Minnesota, but was felt with great force over 



* Report on Forestry, by Franklin B. Hough, Department of Agriculture, Washington^ 

 D. C, 1879, page 533. 



