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CAPABILITIES WITH REFERENCE TO SETTLEMENT. 321 
doubted that the results of such a policy will be, not only the redemp- 
tion of great areas of wild, open prairie, but a very sensible improvement 
of climate. 
749. The question, however, for its satisfactory and rapid solution, 
requires the formation and execution of a comprehensive scheme, which 
shall embrace not only the direct planting and protection of trees, but 
he shaping of the general policy, with regard to the settlement of the 
country, to the same end. In such a scheme it would appear to be 
necessary to consider the following points :— 
I. The planting of trees should be undertaken and encouraged. 
750. This might require to be carried out as a public work in the 
remote districts, but where settlement is going on, or has taken place, the 
planting of sufficient areas might be brought about by legislative action ; 
which might take the form of exemption from taxation for a certain num- 
ber of trees set out, or even in exceptional circumstances, be of the nature 
of adirect bounty on planting: In several of the Western States and Terri- 
tories such a course has been adopted. In Nebraska, where more planting 
has probably been done than in any other country so new, the act of 1869 
exempts from taxation property to the value of $100 for five years for 
each acre of forest-trees planted and cultivated for timber. It being pro- 
vided that the trees are kept in good growing order and set not more 
than twelve feet apart. This enactment is said already to have produced 
a very considerable effect, many settlers availing themselves of it. The 
French, Italian, and other Governments have similar regulations.*— 
Russia with regard to the distribution of its forests much resembles 
British America, for though its wooded area is estimated at forty per 
cent of the whole, it is very unequally distributed, and internal communi- 
cation is yet imperfect. The Southern Provinces are very poor in tim- 
ber, and since 1842 a Government Forest Administration has been 
planting largely. Between 1866 and 1870, 20,000 acres have been planted 
exclusive of the action of private owners. + 
751. An important item under this head is the collection and circula- 
tion of information, both with regard to the species of trees most suitable 
for each locality, and the best methods of planting and cultivation. Ex- 
perimental plantations of different kinds of trees, indigenous and foreign, 
in the various districts, would be very instructive. Nature, of course, 
to acertain extent, indicates the best species to occupy advanced positions 
+P. N. Werekha Notice sur les Abii pela erodeiia. Quoted in Nature, Jan, 28, 1875. 
21D 
