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UNIVERSITY OF B.C. LIBRARY

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FORESTS OF CANADA,

IN WHICH 18 SHEWN

THE PEES3ING NECESSITY WRIGIL EXISTS FOR TEKIR MORE CARE-
FUL PEESERVATION AND EXTENSION BY PLANTING,
AS A SURE AND VALUABLE SOURCE
OF NATIONAL WEALTE.

WITH

i^N A^PPENDIX,

Br

J. H. /ViORGAN,

FORESTRY COMMISSIONER.

OTTAWA:
PRINTED BY MACLEAN, ROGER & CO., WELLINGTON STREET.

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REPORT

ON THE

FORESTS OF CANADA,

IN WHICH IS SHEWN

THB;PKBSSING necessity which exists for their more CA.RB-

FUL PRESERVATION AND EXTENSION BY PLANTING,

AS A SURE AND VALUABLE SOURCE

OF NATIONAL WEALTH.

WITH

^]Sr APPENDIX,

BY

J. H. yVLORGAN,

FORESTRY COMMISSIONER.

OTTAWA:
PRINTED BY MACLEAN, ROGER & CO., WELLINGTON STREET.

1886.

CONTENTS.

Page.

Letter to Hon. Sir D. L. Macphersoia, K.C.M.G 5

Preface 6

IntrodactioD 7

Alarm caused by the rapid exhaustion of pine and spruce in the United States.... 8

Probable duration of Canada's supply 9

Forests an immense source of wealth 10

Preventive enactments 10

The loss sustained through neglect 10

Climatic influence of forests 11

Enquiry as to how forests act as fertilizers 13

General view of the interest now manifested in the protection of forests , 13

Destruction caused by forest fires , 16

How forest fires are dealt with in France 17

How forest fires are started 17

Summary of the causes of forest fires 19

European systems of forestry 20

Forestry in India and Australia 2b

Proper extent of forests 26

Necessity for tree-planting on our prairies and plains 30

Necessity for immediate action , 40

Conculsion 41

Appendix 4^

GoBDON P.O., Essex Co., Ontario, 5th March, 1884.

Sir, — In compliance with the communication from your Department, bearing
date the 2'7th Februaxy, 1883, instructing me to prepare a preliminary report for the
information of His Excellency the Governor General in Council, upon the subject
of the protection of the present forests of the Dominion, and also the planting of
forest trees upon an extensive scale, I have the honor to submit the accompanying
report.

I would observe that this report being, in accordance with your express instruc-
tions, of a preliminary character only, I have been obliged to condense it as much
as possible, and have thus omitted much interesting and important detailed inform-
ation, some of it the result of my own personal observation and experience, and
much that I had gathered from a careful research among the works of eminent
writers on the subject in England, France, and the United States.

As a result of my special inquiry into the matter, I am deeply convinced of the
necessity for a more specific and general investigation into the question involved.
The increasing and reckless waste of our forests, brought about as much by the
destructive carelessness of individuals as by accidental fires, has not received that
attention from the Government of the Dominion and the Governments of the several
Provinces which the future will show to have been necessary.

The inevitable consequences of further neglect will be, among others, climatic
changes, droughts, varied by sudden and disastrous floods, and a great deterioration
in the quality of the soil.

I feel it my duty to press these facts upon your attention, and I most respectfully
beg to suggest that a joint commission should be appointed by the Governments of
the Dominion and the several Provinces to deal with the whole question of the pre-
servation of existing forests, and of the planting of forest trees on an extensive scale,
with a view of systematizing some practical measures for the attainment of these
most desirable objects .

Appended to the report are copies of the statutes which have been enacted in
certain of our Provinces, and also in some of the States of the United States whoso
condition is similar to our own as regards the need for protection of forests.

Appended, also, will be found condensed accounts of the most disastrous forest
fires that devastated our country and the States immediately adjoining us.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

Your most obedient servant,

J. H. MOEGAN,

Forestry Commissioner.

Hon. Sir D. L. Maophebson, K.C.M.G.,

Minister of the Interior, Ottawa.

PREFACE.

As valuable aids to information while engaged in preparing the following
report, I beg gratefully to acknowledge the receipt of books and papers from the
Hon. H. G. Joly, Qaobec; Mr. Stuart Thayne, Ottawa ; the Hon. Gr. B. Loring, United
States Commissioner of Agriculture ; Professor Franklin B. Hough, Ph. D., of Lowell,
New York ; Professor N. H. Egleston, Chief of Forestry Department, Washington ;
J. L. Budd, Professor of Botany, Iowa University j Y. M. Spalding, Professor of
Botany, Michigan University; Hon. B. Gr. Northrop, of Clinton, Con.; Professor
Adolphe Lene, Secretary Ohio Forestry Association ; F. P. Baker, Forestry Commis-
sioner, Topeka, Kansas ; and the Hon. R. W. Furness, Grovernor of Nebraska.

I also acknowledge indebtedness to the works of Messrs. J. C. Brown, A.
Bryant, Humboldt, Hooper, Gray, Loudon, Mechan, Marsh, Michaud, and to the very
valuable reports of Dr. Selwyn and Dr. Bell, of the Dominion Geological Survey.

INTRODUCTION.

The following poom appoarei soma months ago in the ^ew York Sun. Its words
and its sentiment's seom ominously prophetic, and are most appropriate as an intro-
duction to a report on a subject of such importance as the Pkoteotion op our
Forests : —

"A TREELESS COUNTRY.

^'I had a dream lohich was not all a dreain.' '

" A great State was a desert, and the laad
Lay bare and lifeless under sun and storm.
Treeless and shelterless. Spring came and went,
And came, but brought no joy ; but, in its stead,
The desolation of the ravening floods.
That leaped like wolves or wild cats from the hills,
And spread destruction over fruitful farms,
Devouring, as they went the works of man,
And sweeping seaward Nature's kindly soils,
To choke the water-courses worse than waste.

" The forest trees, that in the olden time —
The people's glory and the poet's pride —
Tempered the air and guarded well the earth,
And, under spreading boughs, forages kept
Great reservoirs to hold the snow and rain.
From which the moisture thro' the teaming year,
Flowed equably but freely — all were gone.
Their priceless bales exchanged for petty cash,
The cash that melted and had left no sign ;
The logger and the lumberman were dead ;
The axe had rusted out for lack of use ;
But all the endless evil they had done
Was manifested on the desert waste.

" Dead springs no longer sparkled in the sun ;
Lost and forgotten brooks no longer laughed ;
Deserted mills mourned all their moveless wheels ;
The snow no longer covered, as with wool.
Mountain and plain, but buried starving flocks
In Arctic drifts ; in rivers and canals
The vessels roUed idly in the mud.
Until the spring flood buried all their bones ;
Great cities that had thriven marv'lously.
Before their source of thrift was swept away.
Faded and perished, as a plant will die
With water banished from its roots and leaves ;
And men sat starving in their treeless waste,
Beside their treeless farms and empty marts,
And wondered at the ways of Providence I "

In prepai'ing a preliminary report on the subject of the protection of the forests
of the Dominion and the planting of t'oi-est trees on an extensive scale, the absence
of all data that would aii in forming an estimate of the extent, condition and avail-
ability of our forests, loaves all enquiry about the first part of our subject beset with
no little difficulty.

The reckless and destructive waste of the great forests of Canada, and of the
adjoining States, by fire and by the axe man, has been for a long time looked upon
with much alarm by the more careful and thoughtful of both countries, and has been

8

a ihonip of ansiou id intelligent diecuBBion with the men who take a deep interest
in ibe lulure welfare of ibo eountry.

The rapidii} with which the vast pine aid spruce forests of Ontario and Quebec
».'C beii'g txhiiusied bah aroused thefeaisof the Governments of those Provinces,
umi 11 is to bu hoped they are now tully awake to the gravity and importance of the
biiuation.

TUE ALARM CAUSED BY THE RAPID EXHAUSTION OP PINE AND
SPRUCE IN THE UNITED STATES.

The statesmen of the great Republic on our southern border are also giving the
mibjiK-t iheir careful attention, and comrnist^ioQers from the United States, and many
. f I he individual S ates, were sent to Europe to enquire into and report on the pro-
leciioii, loiitieivaiice, and management of forests in the countries which have the
moht matured systems.

Tne dinj^er that is threatened by the destruction of the pine forests is so great
thai ihe President of the United States recently, in his Annual Message to Congress,
Chlls attention to the subject; and the Secretaiy to the Interior, in his Report, thus
forcibly calls the attention of the representatives of the people to the same subject: —

" The rapidity with which this country is being stripped of its forests must alarm
every thnking man. It has been estimated, by good authority, that if we go on at
the present rale, the supply of timber in the United States will, in less than twenty
years, fall considerably short of our home necessities.

" It is the highest time that we should turn our earnest attention to this subject,
which so seriously concerns our national prosperity."

The Commihsioner of Agriculture for the United States, the Hon. Geo. B.
Loring, who has more reliable sources of information than many who have spoken
and written on this all-important question, says, in his address to the American
Forestry Congress, held at St. Paul, Minnesota, in August last : —

" The condition of the pine timber supply is interesting. The destruction of
this tree by fire and by the axe of the lumberman is very great; Together with the
Bpruce, it is being rapidly consumed, and I think that the following figures will
show what the supply to be obtained hereafter will be, by allowing the exhausted
region to recuperate while the comparatively uncut sections are resorted to for
filling up the demands of the markets. Investigations recently made show that the
supply of pine in Veimout and New Hampshire is exhausted, and that the spruce
timber, at the rate the cutting is now going on, will last, in the former State, but 4
years, and in the latter 7 ; in the State of Maine, pine will last 4 years and spruco
15 ; in South Carolina, the pine forests will last 50 3'oar8, at the present rate of cut-
ting; in Calilornia, 150 years; in Georgia, 80 years; in Louisiana, 100 years; in
Isoith Carolina, 50 years; in Mississippi, 150 years; in Alabama, 90 years; in
Florida, 80 years; in Texas, 250 years; in Wisconsin, 20 years; in Minnesota, 10
year.- ; in Michigan. 10 years; and in Arkansas, 50 years. That the exhausted for-
ests in this libt o) States can be restored in time there is no doubt, and every means
of cultivation and protection should be applied by the people and by the Government^ both
kitate and Federal, each in accordance with its own jurisdiction."

The words emphasized in the above quotation from Commissioner Loring are of
deep import, and deserve, in as far as they are applicable, our earnest attention.

It must be remembered that Mr. Loring, in his very valuable estimate of the
timber supply of the Staves named, has made no allowance for destruction of forests
by. fire; nor has he made any reference to the fact that the lumber business in the
Suuthern States, where the largest forests now are, has recently taken an impetus
that will add largely to the denudation of the land and reduction of the supply.
Some of our Canadian lumboimon Lave recently invested largely in the timber lands
of Arkansas and Louisiana, and arc now actively engaged in making, cutting and
rafting the timber. As scon as the railroads penetrate these largo and hitherto
untouched forests, the work of destruction, similar to that which exhausted the supply
in the older States, unless checked by wise legislation, will very soon give cause
for alarm in those parts*

Eailroads are everywhere penetrating the timber regions of the country, many
of them being built expressly to get oat timber which could not b^ marketed other-
wise. It is but a comparatively short time since thi-^ feature in lumbering was
introduced, and its direct effect is to hasten the destruction th;it was already going
on too fast. The result of this will be to keep up the supply at the mills as long as
there are forests from whence that supply can be obtained.

But while they are doing this, they will be every day hastening the ruin which
must inevitably follow— the vast and rapidly increasing destruction that mu-it of
necessity ensue, unless prompt and adequate raea'^uresare taken to meet future w^nts,
by judicious and extensive planting, and by effectual measures for protecting and
economizing our remaining supply.

A strong effort is now being made by the people of the western States to have
the import duties taken off lumber. Should this be done, the rapid increase in the
demand would cause such an exhaustion in our supplies that the result is fearful to
contemplate.

We, in Canada, have bad only a foretaste of danger, while our cou^fins in the
United States have suffered severely, and the floods of this year have c .used calami-
ties that brought mourning and poverty into many a home. The possible evil results
of stripping the hills and the mountains of their leafy covering is shown in the floods
that desolated the Ohio valley last spring, causing such terrible destruction of life
and property. This is forcibly shown in the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette:

*'Ia 1881 we had the lowest water ever known in the Ohio River, and now we
have the highest. The reasons are obvious and distinct. Take a mass of hills on the
Alleghany and Kanawha Mountains. Let us suppose them clothed with trees from
foot to crown, and with underbrush and moss and k'cds of half-decayed leaves resting
upon the soil that represents the vegetable growth ot ages. Bach mountain thus
covered is an immense sponge. The rain may fall for days, and the greater part of
it is absorbed, saturating the Siil, the grass, and the leave><. lingering in the bu>>hes
and the trees. The half-decayed logs will hold barrels of water, and for weeks after
a heavj' rain the moisture is trickling away in thousands of flush spring's.

"Cut away the tree- from these hills ; the underbrush perinhes, the soil is washed
away, and the rocks are exposed. The rain descends the mountains in torrents, to
suddenly swell the runs and overflow the rivers.

" Take a thousand hills at the head waters of the Ohio and reduce them to
barrenness, and it follows that the river is lower in dry weather and higher in wet
weather, and more and more subject to high and low water."

Is it not probable that the causes which led to the disasters in the Ohio are now
in action about the head waters of the Otcawa? And may not it be tim^ to inquire
whether it is possible to avert the dangers threatened by the oveifl -Wing or the
Thames, Eichelieu and others of our rivers ?

PEOBABLB DURATION OP CANADA'S SUPPLY.

As to the probable duration of our own timber supply, under the present high
pressure of exhaustion, in the absence of offioial investisfMtion, similar to that whi'-h
wai'ranted the statement of Commissioner Loring, it would be presumptuous to say.
Alarmists place it at a very short period ; while many are of the opinion that thwre
is no apparent danger of scarcity of the necessary supply. Mr. Phipps, who has
taken much pains in preparing, and has been very cautious in making statements,
says that Mr. Little, an authority worthy of respect, and others, put the duration of
our supply at our present rate of consumption at ten years. Mr. Phipps ways : " We
may, I think, consider that the demand is likely to increase, perhaps to double."
After quoting some figures from Mr. Little, he again says, after rHuding to statistics
about Canadian fires : *' We may well doubt whether we have fi- e years' supply."

While there is no immediate danger of wood becoming so sc;u"ce in the D )minion
that we shall have to send abroad for any, yet, at the same rate at which our com-
merce and our industries are growinsr, nearly all of the latter requiring largo quan-
tities of wood, the building and repairs of railways, of telegraph and telephone posts,
all cause such heavy drafts on our supply that we may well be alarmed about

10

providing for our future wants. These wants are growing as rapidly as the growth
of the country ; the progress of a country can, to a groat extent, be measured by its
ooneumption of wood; and as civilization advances this consumption will increase.

Kailroads are great consumers of wood, A now road requires about 2,500 cross
ties per mile ; and to keep a road in repair 100 ties per mile are required annually.
Professor Sargent said, Homo five years ago, when the United States had 85,000 miles
of railroad : " Supposing the life of a nloepor to bo seven years, the railroad tracks of
the country consume annually 31,000,000 ^loopors, or thirty years' growth of 68,000
acres of the best natural wood land. At least 125,000 miles of fencing are required
to enclose the railroads of the country, costing not loss than $43,000,f'00."

Wo might add statistics, did time and space pei*mit, about telegraph and tele-
phone poles, paper wood pulp, charcoal making, and many other enterprises that
require large supplies of wood, and which have to be taken into consideration in our
calculations about the future.

FOKESTS AN IMMENSE SOUECE OF WEALTH.

In the past our forests have been our greatest source of wealth. Since Confede-
ration alone our exports of lumber amounted to the enormous sum of $330,520,000,
without taking into account what may have been exported in the manufactured
slate. This is an annual average of $22,034,(i6t', for fifteen years. During the same
period the exports of agricultural products amounted to an annual average of
617,305,088, and those of another great brarch of our industries, oar fisheries,
amounted to $5,360,120 annually. During this same period the Provincial Govern-
ments collected about eleven millions of dollars in revenue from the produci of our
forests.

Unfortunately, this rich harvest cannot be reaped much longer, unless prompt
measures are taken for the economic use, protection, conservance, and reproduction
of our woods. This can only be accomplished by a careful and competent super-
vision by persons thoroughly qualified, and cf reliable integrity, to perform the
important duties.

PEEYENTIVE ENACTMENTS.

Eigorous laws against trespass, waste, caieless or wilful destruction, should be
enacted, and vigilantly and fearlessly enforced. With a judicious management, and
a proper and economic use, our present forests would lust a long time yet, during which
the young trees would mature, and thus the danger which seems so imminent would,
to a great extent, be provided against.

'• • Nature, through a bountiful Providerico, when not obstructed by the hand of man,
is ever willing to continue the measure of her benefactions. We have gathered
largely of these blessings in the past, and it is now a duty we owe to nature, to our-
selves and to posterity, to remedy, as far as possible, the evils which our reckless
wastefulness has caused. This, in order to avert calamity, must not be neglected.

THE LOSS SUSTAINED THEOUGH NEGLECT.

It is impossible to fully estimate the loss that neglect of our forests in the past
has entailed. In fact, the great value and extent of our forest treasure seems to give
us neither pleasure nor satisfaction, and it is only whoa its rapid destruction is becom-
ing apparent that we wake up to what mu^t absolutely be the consequence of our
carelessness.

Dr. James Brown, the eminent forester, speaking, some fourteen years ago, about
our forests, said : —

" Were those vast forests properly dealt with, they could not fail to be a great
source of revenue to the country, and continue to yield annually, for an unlimited
time, as much timber as they do now; but, unfortunately, we find indiscriminate
felling going on everywhere, and in time this must lead to the exhaustion of the best
timber, and render these yet valuable forests comparatively of little consequence."

11

The past cannot be recalled, but it is not yet too late to arrest the evil. The
opinions of men like Dr. Brown are well worth regarding, and we should lose no time
before steps are taken that would secure our remaining woods from the consequence
of carelessness and waste.

We have eeen large money appropriations wisely and liberally devoted to the
encouragement of agriculture and the propagation and protection of our fisheries ;
and it is time that something were done for our forests. Hitherto, they have been
looked upon by the Government as a means of revenue, by the lumbermen as a source
of wealth, and by the pioneer as a foe, and devoted to destruction.

Our timber interests have been in the past, as they no doubt must be in the
future, closely identified with those of the United States. I will adduce some further
evidence in support of the estimate of the probable duration of the great lumber-
producing Stales on our border, as the supply in those States will, of course, always
exercise a marked influence on our lumber markets.

The Hon. V. M. Spalding, Professor of Botany in the University of Michigan,
who has given special attention to the subject, says that, "at the present rate of
exhaustion, the supply in Michigan will give out in seven years,"

The Hon . Mark Daniel, who is a representative of the State of Minnesota, in a
speech full of statistics, made recently by him in Congress, says that, " at the
present rate of consumption, seven years will exhaust the supply in Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and Michigan," These notes of warning, given to our nearest neighbors,
should be taken to heart by us. With these competing markets removed, the price
of lumber will be greatly enhanced, and the temptation to further denudation of
our remaining forest lands greatly augmented.

CLIMATIC INFLUENCE OP FOEESTS.

Great as the loss of our timber supplies would be — much as we might deplore the
reduction of revenue to our treasury — inconvenient and expensive as it would be to
have to send abroad for our timber for our home wants — there are other and more
all-absorbing interests that should impel us to protect and conserve our forests, such
as climatic changes consequent thereon, our public health, our agricultural prosperity,
our exposure to floods and torrents — in fact, our very existence as a great people.

History gives innumberable instances in ancient, mediaeval, and modern times,
of the unfortunate results of the wholesale removal of entire forests without any
steps being taken for their reproduction. The people knew well enough that they
were indispensable to their welfare, from a commercial as well as an estbetical point
of view, but they made no effort to preserve or reproduce them j neither the Greeks
nor Eomans, notwithstanding their great attainments, seemed to be aware of the
final consequences of the destruction that would follow the removal of their noble
forests; and the student of history learns vvith amazement that the rich and glorious
groves that once crowned the hills and mountains of these classic lands exist no
longer, and that the rugged crags and sterile plains which succeeded are the heritage
of wastefulness and improvidence.

In Greece — beautiful Greece — the noble groves that threw shade over the
rippling streams exist no longer, neither do the streams which the grateful shade
protected. One of the most renowned of the ancient patriarchs, forsaking the noise
and turmoil of Athens for the calm and peace that seclusion affords, Basil the Great,
writing to his friend Gregory of Nazianzum, from a place in Asia Minor, that is now
a desert, said : " I believe that I may at least flatter myself with having found the
end of my wanderings. The hope of being united with thee — or I should say my
pleasant dreams, for hopes have been justly termed the waking dreams of men — have
remained unfulfilled. God has permitted mo to find a place such as often flitted
bofoie our imaginations ; for that which they have shown us from afar is now made
manifest to me. A high mountain clothed with thick woods is watered by overflow-
ing streams. At its foot is an extended plain rendered fruitful by the vapors with
which it is moistened. The surrounding forests, crowded with trees of various kinds,
enclose me as in a strong fortress." Further on he says : — " Shall I describe to you
the fructifying vapors that rise from the moist earth, or the cool breeze wafted over

12

the rippled face of the waters ? Shall I speak of the sweet song of the birds, or the
rich lujnirianco of the flowering plants? What charms me beyond all else is the
calm repose of this spot."

It was from this lovely retreat that he described the constantly clear nights, and
called the stars, " those everlasting blossoms of heaven."

The forests that sheltered and charmed the great patriarch exist no longer ;
consequent on their loss are barrenness and desolation ; floods to be succeeded by
malaria, malaria by droughts, and droughts by famine. All this because the
people were reckless in the destruction of their forests, and in ignoring the con-
sequences.

One of the speakers who addressed the recent Forestry Congress at St. Paul
said : " The entire coast of the Mediterranean, once the garden of Europe, has been
blighted into comparative barrenness by the denudation of its forest lands. The gradual
denudation of the once fertile islands of the West Indies, St. Thomas and Santa Cruz,
is the result of the primitive forests having been destroyed. '

The great discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus, writing from one of
these islands, says: "The beauty of the now land surpasses the beauty of the
Campagna of Cordova. The trees are bright with an ever verdant foliage, and are
always laden with fruit. The plants on the ground are high and flowering. The air
is warm as that of April in Castile, and the nightingale sings more melodiously than
words can describe."

How sad is the change since the great navigator wrote I

The Hon. G. P. Marsh, United States Minister to Eome, says : " There are
parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Alpine Europe, and of Greece, where
causes set in action by man have brought the face of the earth to a desolation as
complete as that of the moon, and yet they are known to have been covered with
luxuriant forests, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows, and a dense population once
inhabited these now lonely districts. The fairest and fruitfullest pi-ovinces of the
Eoman Empire, formerly endowed with the greatest superiority of soil, climate and
position, are completely exhausted of their fertility, or so diminished in their pro-
ductiveness as, with the exception of a few favored cases that have escaped the
general ruin, to bo no longer fit for affording sustenance for civilized man. If to this
realm of desolation we now add the wasted and lonely soils of Persia and the remoter
East, that once fed their millions with milk and honey we shall see that a territory
larger than all Europe, the abundance of which, sustained in bygone centuries a

Eopulation scarce inferior to that of the whole christian world of the present day,
as been withdrawn from human use, or, at best, is only inhabited by tribes too few,
poor and uncultivated to contribute anything to the general or natural interests of
mankind."

Mr. Marsh also alludes to the physical deterioration of many parts of Europe,
which, in some localities, has been so rapid that a single generation has witnessed
the beginning and the end of the melancholy revolution. He says : — " A desolation
like that which has overwhelmed the once beautiful and fertile regions of Europe
awaits important parts of the United States, (might not Canada be included?) unless
prompt measures are taken to check the action of the destructive cause already in
operation."

In Canada we have many bleak and rugged hills that once were covered with
valuable and beautiful forests. The early navigators of our rivers and lakes were
charmed and surprised at the extent of the luxurious forests that reached without
limit far away from the banks and shores. Could the spirits of Cartier and Champlain
return from the spirit-land and visit the banks of that most beautiful of rivers, the
St Lawrence, they would be saddened to see that civilization had not guarded from
destruction the beautiful groves and woodlauds with which the Great Architect had
ornamented the land. The luxuriant vines and clustering grapes that festooned and
adorned the woods on the beautiful island of Orleans, which lies in sight of the
citadel of Quebec, impelled Cartier to baptize it "Isle de Bacchus." Vines and groves
have disappeared from islands, capes and shores, and there are neither wood^ nor
forests to check the chilling sweep of the north-oast gale, as in its ruthless fierceness
it comes up the valley of the great river from its home among the icebergs.

13

The Hon. H. G. Joly, to whom we owe much for the valuable aid and informa-
tion which he is always willing to give in the interests of forestry, commencing on
our wastefulness, says: "The result stares us reproachfully in the face, especially
in the Province of Quebec, the oldest Province of the Dominion. The old settlements
are painfully bare of trees ; you sometime?; go miles without seeing a tree worth
looking at, and the passing stranger fancies himself in a country more denuded of
trees than the older parts of Europe. There is a large district of good agricultural
land 80uth*of Montreal, where the scarcity of firewood, which is a matter of life and
death in a climate like ours, has compelled many a farmer to sacrifice a fine farm
and leave the country. There are many other parts nearly as bad, and, unfortunately,
the process of destruction is going on even now in more places than one."

What Mr. Joly says of Quebec is, unfortunately, applicable to all the other
Provinces. The scarcity and high price of fuel, the difficulty of obtaining material
to replace the worn-out fences, together with short crops, often caused by the want of
sufficient tree-shelter in winter and the absence of moisture in the summer, has
caused the discouraged farmer to abandon land that he, unwittingly, had impover-
ished. But, under the light which experience is giving, it is to bo hoped that further
destruction will be checked, and that many of the old places will be restored to their
prestine beauty and verdure.

BNQUIEY AS TO HOW FOEESTS ACT AS FERTILIZBES.

It may be proper here to inquire how the removal of the forests, in the countries
we have alluded to, could have caused the disasters and desolation which befel them.

These lands, like the western part of this continent, were subject to periodical
droughts — had their wet and dry seasons. The forests, with which the hills and
mountains were covered, acted as reservoirs to hold, retaio, and economize the waters
which the rainy season showered upon them. The soil in the forest is loose and
spongy. The roots and rootlets are as so many pipes penetrating the earth, loading
the water into the deeper soil. The heaps of leaves, the layers of brambles, the beds
of moss, all combine to hold and letain the waters, while the shade afforded by the
foliage protects the ground from the parching rays of the Run, and prevents too
sudden evaporation. The waters thus retained percolate slowly through the ground,
to feed the numberless springs, creeks and rivers which, in the old time, flowed
perpetually.

Eemove the forests ! what happens ? The plants that throve and flourished
'neath their grateful shade, all die ; the moss withers ; the parched leaves are blown
away by the winds. Then comes the rainy season. Eain falls in torrents, and
washes down the sides of hills and mouutaiu^, carrying off the rich mould, the
deposit of ages, the life of the land ; overflowing the valleys, obstructing river
channels, and often destroying life and property in its resistless force. It is not
difficult to see that the results arising from the denudation of hills have been, and
will continue to be, disastrous.

GENERAL YIBW OF THE INTEREST NOW MAf^lFESTED IN THE
PEOTEOTION OF FOEESTS.

Many parts of Europe are suffering from floods more than in former generations,
from causes similar to those which deluged the Ohio valley. The experience of
Hungary, France, and northern Italy has boea very unfortunate. Even many of
the German States, although more careful in their efforts at prevention, have suffered
severely.

In 1875 Herr Gustave Wex, Councillor of State, an 1 Director of Government
Works for the regulation of the flow of the Danube, in a paper read to the Geogra-
phical Society of Vienna, affirms that in the last fifty years the decrease in the
average level or compari-^.on between the highest and the lowest flow of the Ehine,
has been 24 inches; the Vistula, 26 inches; the Danube, at Orsova, 55 inches. These
measurements uuquestionably show thit the floods are high(3r than in former 3'oars,
and the difference between the highest and the lowest levels is much greater. Many

14

of the manufactories have experienced groat diflSculties, and have been, in many
instances, compelled to substitute steam for their diminished water supply.

This remarkable change in the water level of those rivers is ascribed to the
clearing away of the forests, especially in the mountains, where inundations occur
more frequently. The correctness of these conclusions is sadly illustrated by recent
floods in the valleys through which these rivers flow.

Several learned societies, such as the Eoyal Academy of Science, of Vienna ;
the Imperial Academy, of St. Petersburg, and others, appointed a commission to
report on the statomout of Herr Wex, and it was substantially confirmed. The
commissioners say : " Forests exercise a beneficial influence which cannot bo esti-
mated too highly, in an increased humidity of tho air, a reduction of the extreraos
of temperature, a diminution of evaporation and more regular distribution of rainfall
— while in their destruction is seen the injurious efi'ects of an alternation of periods
of drought at one time and floods at another."

Of the climatic influence of forests there can be little doubt. Many theorists claim
that they cause rainfall, but I think experience will not sustain these theories. As
before stated, they retain it, economise it, and distribute it more regularly, causing
a more equable temperature and more humid atmosphere.

Dr. Brandis, Superintendent-General of Forests in India, in a paper on the geo-
graphical distribution of forests in India, which was read before the British Associa-
tion for the Promoiion of Science, considered India as divided by tho rainfalls into
arid, dry, and wet districts, and in the west corner of India was what might
be called the arid tract. The average rainfall in this district was less that 15 inches.
In this region the work of the forester was limited to those tracts that stretched
along the Indus and its tributaries, watered by the annual overflow of the river dur-
ing the summer, or which could bo otherwise irrigated. Thus there were in Scinde
352,000 acres of Government forests maintained by the overflow of that river and by
protection. The result of the deflection of a river from its course was that tho forest
near the old bed frequently perished.

In tho southern dry zone, comprising part of the Deccan, where the ancient
irrigation works, tanks and stone dams across rivers existed, vegetation was most
vigorous. Dr. J. C. Brown, who is the most voluminous writer, and perhaps one of
the most reliable, on tho subject of forestry, in his excellent work on " Forests and
Moistures," in which he shows much research, and gives a larger quantity of testimony
than we find elsewhere on the subject of forests and rainfalls, says : —

" From what has been advanced, it appears to be established as a fact that there
are cases in which an extensive destruction of forests has been followed by a marked
desiccation of soil and aridity of climate, and some cases wherein the replanting of
trees has been followed by a more complete restoration of humidity, or the planting
of trees where there were none has been followed by a degree of humidity greatly
in excess of what had been previously observed ; that there are cases in which tho
rainfall within forests, or in their immediate vicinity, has been perceptibly greater
than in the open country beyoni ; but that there are also cases in which it is alleged
that bebause of desiccation some lands, once clothed with forests, and fertile, are now
treeless and barren and dry. This may be attributed in part, if not in whole, to
other causes besides the destruction of the forests ; and there are cases in which the
extensive destruction of forests does not appear to have extensively affected the
quantity of the rainfall over a wide expanse of country.

" These facts, by a little latitude in the use of language, may bo characterized as
antagonistic or conflicting, but they may, nevertheless, be accepted as facts, and that,
with the admission that, if facts, they must be perfectly compatible with each other,
and not only compatible, but consistent with each other, in the actually existing con-
dition of things, and necessary to be known, in order to a correct conception ot this
system as a whole.

•* The effects of forests in retarding the flow of tho rainfall, after its precipitation,
has been established, I consider, beyond all question; and not loss so their effect in
maintaining a general humidity of atmosphere and soil."

Sir Richard Temple, Bart., in his interesting work, " India in 1880," says : —

15

" Many believe that the rainfall is copious and seasonable, or otherwise, according
as the woods and forests and the vegetation subsidiary to them is preserved or
destroyed, while others disbelieve this view, which, at all events, must admit of much
qualification. But after all due statements have been made, this view is generally
held to have some truth. The total rainfall of the whole country cannot possibly be
affected by the forests. The average quantity of vapor must come from the ocean,
and must be condensed somewhere ; if it be not discharged in rain as it crosses the
plains, it will pass to the mountains and be transformed there. This, indeed, is a
matter of common experience; moisture-laden clouds float over the Deccan, leaving it
arid, and move on to the Satpura range ; and, being condensed there, fill the torrent
beds with rain water, which rushes into the runs and returns ultimately to the plain,
in the shape of inundations. Similarly, clouds sweep over Hindostan's thirsty plains,
and being condensed in the Himalayas, return in the form of floods in the great rivers*
The hope is, that if forest tracts were distributed over the plains there would be cool
surfaces to attract the clouds, and arrest them, as it were, on their way."

This would be very desirable, but a residence for several years on the western
side of this continent would not lead me to look for any such results. For example,
in California, for about eight months in the year, there is no rain, yet the vapor-
laden breezes come in every day from the illimitable Pacific Ocean. They pass
across the grand forests of the Coast Eange Moantains, thence over the rich and
fertile valleys of Sacramento— over ice-coverel peaks that glisten daily in the
sun ; but never, during the dry season, does a cloud dim the lustre of their glory.
Nor do the valleys of Colorado and Utah, which lie to the eastwai'd, get refreshed
by showers, that ought, according to theory, to be the result of these vapors having
come in contact with the snow-covered Sierras.

In South America climatic phenomena are still more remarkable. In Bolivia,
west of the Andes, no rain has fallen for many years; nor has there been rain but
once in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. Bast of the same great mountain
range, on the great plains known as the Pampas, while some parts will be for years
without rain, others will be refreshed with showers every day in the year.

Professor Arnold Gurgot, in a paper read before the National Academy
of Soiences, to illustrate the great dryness to which the great plains of the
Pampas are subject, east of the Andes and between latitudes 20 to 30 degrees
south, mentions the grand sec, or great drought of nearly three years' duration, which
occurred in the present century, and is still remembered as having cost the lives of
millions of cattle, which came to die along the few river courses which retained some
water, and whose bones accumulated in places where they died, just as fosil remains
of creatures of an earlier zoological period are found on these same great plains.

" All signs fail in dry weather," and theory is as futile as signs. The author just
quoted says : —

" It is remembered that throughout the world those regions which possess rich
vegetation receive abundant rain, while those that are denuded of vegetation are
rainless. It is remarkable that those regions in India which ordinarily receive rain,
but which have been parched by a long drought, are plagued afterwards with immo-
derate rain."

The theory of Sir Eichard Temple is not sound, so far as this continent is con-
cerned. Abundant rain, if the soil is good, will bring rich vegetation, but rich
vegetation will not bring rain. The Mormons, in Utah, have succeeded in covering
their hills and valleys with the richest kind of vegetation, but have not succeeded in
increasing the rainfall. Pizaro found in Peru hundreds of square miles of groves of
lemon, orange, olive and other trees — all the result of irrigation ; bat the rain never
came in what was known as the dry season. Last season the people of Manitoba
complained of long drought, but I never saw anything to surpass the richness of
the vegetation of their wheat fields and meadows, when I visited them in August
last, although rain had not fallen in the part of the Province I have made reference
to for over two months.

Nor would his theory be sustained by results, even in India. It has been shown
that the extensive tracts of forests on the lands watered by the overflow of the
Indus, never could induce clouds or rain to approach, except in the rainy season j

16

and lar^e tractF porished of thirst when the river, as it sometimes did, altered its
ponrso.

DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY FOREST FIRES.

In all that has been wx-ilten thus far, and in the extracts taken from authors of
note, I believe iL has been establishod that the denudation of a country by stripping
it of its woods may bring irreparable calamity ; but it is only fair to say that man
is not responxiblo for all the evils. Judging by the experience we have had in this
country, and in conformity with the opinions of men competent to form sound con-
clusions on the subject, fire has been a greater foe to the forests than man. The
desolation which now overspreads Persia and other eastern and southern lands cannot
all be fairly put tc man's debit. These countries labored under the same climatic
disadvantages that now affect every State on the west of this continent, from Oregon
to Chili. They ware plagued with long periodical droughts. At the close of a pro-
tracted dry season a fire might take, from no fault of man. A gale or a hurricane
that was altogether beyond his control might ensue, and drive and spread the flame
that would blight the fortunes of the inhabitants of a district or a province.

The great losses that have been entailed by the numerous disastr -is fires that
swept away many of the finest forests of America impel us to give the subject a
laj-ge share of attention. Laws for the preservation of our forests and protection
against their destruction have been enacted in all our Provinces, and also by the
Government of the United States, and each of the individual States and Territories,
and in the appendix to this report will be found copies of such enactments as seem
most worthy of attention or adoption. At all events, they will afford ready assis-
tance D the preparation of new or the amendment of existing statutes upon the
subject

U]> t'> tno present time, fire has been the greatest enemy that our forests have
had to contend with. The Hon. Mr. Joly, in his valuable and very able " Report on
the Forests of Canada," says : " It is estimated, by those who are competent to form
an opinion on the subject, that more pine timber has been destroyed by fire than has
been taken out and destroyed by the lumberman ; not only is the ripe timber
destroyed by fire, but all the young trees, too, upon whose growth we mus'; depend
for the restoring of our fore^^ts. It is not practicable in our Canadian woods to plant
trees to take the place of those that are cut down."

The difficulty of guarding against fire in such immense and distant forests as
ours is enormous, and as for extinguishing a forest fire when once fairly started, the
fower of man cannot succeed. It will sweep onward, so long as it can find food, leaping
at one bound over such rivers at the great Ottawa and Miramichi, and will only stop
when brought to bay by the large lakes, or when it reaches rocky or barren ground,
with nothing to burn ; it will riot for weeks, until starved for want of food, or drowned
under torrents of rain.

We can cope with waste and pillage ; they are but the works of man ; but we
are terribly helpless against forest fires. It is, in every country, the greatest enemy,
especially of pine forest, on account of its resinous and inflamable nature. It is ubi-
quitous : you find it causing its ravages wherever nature has planted her grand virgin
forests, in North America destroying the beautiful white pine, and at the Antipodes,
in Now Zealand, sweeping away the noble Kawari pine ; through India, the Russian
Empire, Sweden, and Norway, it throws around the world a girdle of lurid flames,
only broken by the great oceans.

In France and Grermany the science of forestry is broua;ht to a high state of
perfection. Where the forests are much smaller than ours, divided and isolated one
from another, kept as much as possible free from rubbish and dead timber, and the
light stuff that carries on the flames so rapidly ; protected by stringent laws, strictly
enforced for generations, watched over by large staffs of foresters, even then disastrous
fires are of frequent occurrence, and they call for such an effort to suppress them
as is totally beyond our power, as the following example will show: —

Considerable forests have been created within the last two or throe generations
in the south-west of Prance, and now cover large regions that were once barren heaps
of sand, rolled up far inland by the action of the sea. Those forests, created

17

by man, now yield a large and ever-increasing revenue, are highly valued, and
must be protected, one would think, as well as any foret-t can ever hope to be pro-
tected. Neverthelesf-, fires are frequent amorg them.

The people do there what we cannot do here, and generally conquer the fire
with more or less loss. But a short dencription of their mode of warfare will show
how utterly inapplicable it is to our circumstances, and makes us feel more than ever
that our only hope is in Prevention.

HOW FOREST FIRES ARE DEALT WITH IN FRANCE.

In France, as soon as it is discovered that the forest is on fire (which cannot
take long, where the forests are comparatively small and the country thickly settled
round) the church bells ring in all the neighboring village.*, and the whole popula-
tion, trained by long experience, turn out with axes, spades, shovels, rakes, &c.,
under the guidance of acknowledged leaders. They confine their movements accord-
ing to the direction of the wind and other circumstance, and dispose their forces with
intelligence and promptitude. A mode often resorted to is the coupe feu, fighting
the fire with fire, something not unlike the hunters practice when overtaken by fires
on our western prairies. Knowing the forest well, they direct their forces to one of
the coupe feus, or satety strips (upon which no trees or shrubs are allowed to grow),
or to the most favorable spot on the path of the fire, at a sufficient distance ahead of
it, form an extended line of workers wider than the fire, and set to work to remove
the inflamable materials as much as possible. They cut down and burn and trample
out or shovel earth on what they cannot carry away of the inflamable stuff, &c., and
when the fii'o, in its course, reaches that spot, it finds little food, hesitates, lingers,
and at last is generally conquered.

We cannot do that; our forests are not surrounded by villages, iLa alari:. bells
cannot muster crowds of willing workers to our distant wilderness, often hundreds
of miles away from the dwellings of men.

But if we cannot stop fire, can we not do something to prevent it or to limit its
ravages ? The best means adopted in Germany and France, and in Great Britain,
too (where the science of forestry is becoming an object of serious stady), for pre-
venting the spreading of fire over a large tract of ground, is the laying out of their for-
ests, and dividing them into isolated independent blocks by means of safaty strips or
coup feus. B'lt e\en then, whenever the wind is very strong, it has been found that
it would carry inflamable matter, such as pine cones, clear over everything, to a
distance of one and even of two miles, and there start fresh fires where they fall,
which will be readily believed by those who remember how easily fires have swept
over the Ottawa River.

Though not always sufficient, these safety strips are nevertheless of great
service, but their opening with us is scarcely practicable. It would entail incredible
labor and expenditure, on account of the great length we would have to prolong them
and the distance ; and, furthermore, the bi ush and the timber felled down to make
them would have to be removed ; otherwise it would soon dry up und increase the
danger instead of decreasing it. Then, to maintain their efficiency, tho}- would have
to be kept clear of a new growth. We cannot think of undertaking such a gigantic
work, at least in our large and remote forests. Neither can wo undertake, as they
do in Europe, to clear the underbrush and to remove the dead wood and rubbish.
It is an excellent precaution, and its adoption in Europe is not only free from cost,
but it brings in a large profit. Our circumstances are totally diflo) ent, as any man
of any experience must know, and I will not enlarge upon that point.

If we cannot profit by these good examples, we are nevertheless not going to
sit tamely down and declare that nothing can be done. We can do a great deal to
prevent our forests from being set on fire.

HOW FOREST FIRES ARE STARTED.

The fires are started by settlers clearing their lands ; by lumbermen, while
driving their timber down the stream ; by hunters and fishermen ; by sparks from

18

locomotives ; by lightning ; sometimes, even, by the violent rubbing of dead branohes
one a^'ftinst the other in gales of wind.

We cannot' very easily provide a^ainat the latter causes, as we cannot remove
all our dead wood or provide against lightning in the forests. But locomoiives can
keep down their sjiarks, with screens over their smoke stacks. The railway com-
panies are instructed in every way in guarding against firo.s, and it" they uoglect to
take sufficient precautions, they can be reached and called to account.

vjjA frequent cause of disastrous fires in the woods is the mode of clearing land
now generally adopted by settlers.

There is considerable diversity of opinion as to the total quantity or value of
the timber consumed annually by firej but it is pretty generally admitted that it is
a greater source of consumption than all others cDmbined. One gentleman, Mr.
Thistle, who is a surveyor by profession, and a lumberman of long experience, puts
the quantity destroyed by fire at ten times that used in the manufacture of lumber.
Another, Mr. Stewart Tha3'ne, in his evidence before a committee of the House of
Commons on immigiation and colonization, places the annual loss, in the Ottawa
valley alone, at $5,000,000. In view of such testimony as to the enormous loss the
country sustains, it is rather strange that stops have not been taken sooner to
organize a forest corps, whoso duty it would bo to prepare our nearest forests with
fire strips, or coup feus, such us have been adoj)ted in Germany and France, regard-
less of the cost, as in no case could it reach a fifth of what the annual loss is estimated
at.

Mr. Thayne said, on the question of the appointment of a staff for the enforce-
ment of the laws for the prevention of forest fires: " The appointment of such a staff
would supply one of the most urgent needs of the country. If it wore generally
understood that the lowest estimate of the average annual loss through the forest fires
places it at $5,000,000 in the Ottawa valley alone, it seems to me that public opinion
would soon interfere to prevent such a fearful waste of the national wealth, for it
should be remembered that in the great majority of cases these fires originate from
causes which could be easily controlled."

Dr. Franklin B. Hough, who acted as chief of the Forestry Branch of the
Agricultural Department at Washington for several years, has gone into the subject
of forest fires very exhaustively. In his report, vol. 3, he devotes no less than 130
pages to that subject alone.

In 1880 a circular was issued from the Department under his care to its corres-
pondents in the several States and Territories, with a view of ascertaining the extent
of injuries that have been sustained and observed through forest fires, the causes of
these fires, so far as known, and the methods commonly employed for preventing
them or arresting them when started and under way. The circular invited such
suggestions as might appear advisable concerning the means for preventing the con-
tinued recurrence of these calamities.

Some of the suggestions and advice given are worthy of note, and might be
adopted with advantage. One correspondent says, in answer to the request for
suggestions : —

'* 1. Open the eyes of the people to the danger, the immense destruction of
property, the rapidly shrinking streams, the increase and duration of droughts, the
blighting of landscapes, and the general climatic effect. This can be done by
national publications fitted for the common people, not by documentary reports.
Force these upon the attention of all by tracts or placards in the places of common
resort — in lumbering camps, in all centres of population adjacent to the torests.

"2. Ej stringent national and State laws, fastening responsibility upon careless
guides and tourists, and also upon those who are clearing lands. When a man wishes
to burn a fallow piece he should girdle it with swathes. Eosponsible men, who would
not think of endangering their neighbor's house by a bonfire in their garden, think
nothing of letting loose their fallow fires into adjoining timber."

The correspondents who oiler suggestions almost always at-k for more vigorous
laws, with rewards offered for the conviction of delinquents; while others admit the
cxifitence of laws, but deplore the fact that the laws are not enforced — something, 1

19

suppose, like our provincial law for the prevention of the spreading of the Canada
thistle, which is now almost a dead letter.

The estimate of the value of property destroyed contained in the replies to the
circular is incalculable, and the quantity of good forest land rendered utterly worth-
less is very much to be deplored.

In an appendix to this report will be given an abridged account of the most
important historic forest fires that have occurred on this continent, as the reading of
them will naturally impress one with the great necessity which exists for carefulness
against fire.

SUMMARY OF THE CAUSES OF FOREST FIRES.

Dr. Hough gives a summary of the supposed cauees (as gleaned from his corres-
pondents) which led to the fires reported on. The summary, in numerical form, is as
follows : —

Natural causes-— lightning 3

The direct, or incidental act of man 464

Of the latter, he says the Indians are charged with 21 cases, the remainder being
ascribed to civilized man — the motive with the former, in most cases, being hostility
to the whites and a desire to harm them as much as .possible. In a few cases burning
to drive game is mentioned .

The 443 cases for which the white man is directly or indirectly held accountable
are as follows :—

INTENTIONAL.

For improvement of pasture or the clearing of land, &c., &c. 85

Incendiary and malicious firing 37

Tramps (perhaps caroles&ness) 6

Back firing (for safety) 3

Clearing the ground to find nuts 5

Clearing the ground to find mica 1

ACCIDENTAL.

The fire escaping from brush heaps in preparing land for culti-
vation 93

Hunting, usually from careless neglect of camp fires or to des-

troydead leaves 75

Careless leaving of camp fires by traders, pleasure-seekers, &c.,

&c 69

Locomotive sparks 75

Charcoal barning 11

Steam mills 2

Burning oil well 1

It will be seen that fires from natural causes, according to this summary, are
very rare, and that those caused by the Indian, in what he considers legitimate 'war-
fare, are few ; while those by man, intentionally, amount to over 30 per cent. ; and
that 70 per cent, are attributable to carelessness, the greater part being avoidable,
and if not in preventing the starting of fires, it may be seen from the above figures
that provision to a great degree might be made for their suppression.

The estimates of the damage are enormous, but Dr. Hough considers them to be
founded in many cases on uncertain information, and very seldom on exact appraisal.
He says: " In fact, we would consider any attempt to obtain a numerical summary of
the annual destruction resulting from forest fires, through any existing agency, as
liable to great error, for it would necessarily be founded upon personal estimates,
which would sometimes be exaggerated, from their overwhelming local importance
in the immediate presence of the observer, and in other cases immensely under-
valued, from their being in remote and inaccessible regions, where the only data for
estimate might be a column of smoke on a distant horizon, or the vague rumors of
hearsay."

20

Dr. Hough's compilation of facts is very interesting, but, unfortunately, goes to
ehow how general all through the States and Territories is the destruction of the
remaining woodlands of the whole country still going on.

In the organization of a S5'.stem of forest management, of the immediate necessity
of which there is no doubt, we ehail have lo seek from, and learn by, the experience
of those countries that have given the subject their greatest attention, all the infor-
mation that will be most valuable to us.

EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF FORESTRY.

Germany, France, Austria, and Italy have all very mature systems. They long
ago realized their danger, and adopted systems of forest management, and have never
ceased in their efforts to improve them. They enacted codes and statutes for the
protection of their woodlands ; established schools and colleges for teaching practi-
cal and scientific forestry. France, appreciating the great benefit that resulted to
herself by the improved system, extended it to her African colonies. Russia,
although 42i per cent, of her land is covered with trees, has, nevertheless, established
schools for learning forestry in all its bearings, and enacted laws for the protection
of her enormous forest domain.

In 1858 Baron Von Berg, a distinguished forest officer of Saxony, was
requested to report on the forests and forest management of Poland and Finland,
and the establishment of schools of forestry was the result of his report. In some
of the schools the teaching of agriculture is combined with that of forestry.

Professor J. L. Budd, of the Iowa Agricultural College, who visited Russia last
year, with a view of ascertaining which species of fruit and forect trees and shrubs
would be most suitable for the climate and soil of Iowa, gives much valuable and
interesting information. He says : —

'* On visiting the grounds of the Agriculiural College, near Moscow, for the .first
time, a forestry convention was assembled there. About 150 foresters — forestry
managers — were present. As a class, they visited all parts of the ground, and
listened like school boys to explanations of modes and methods adopted, and the
reasons therefor. These open-field lessons were finished with fine-object lessons at
the propagatory beds and in the forestry plots, under different management and in
different stages of growth."

Mr. Budd visited many of the forest plantations. Of his visit to Jula, which is
situated 200 miles south of Moscow, he says : —

" We were favored with a letter from the Minister of Public Domains to the
Governor of the Province. Our visit occurred at a time fixed for a visit to one of
the largo forest plantations of the Province, 14 versts distant. I should say the
Province of Jula is one of the smallest of Russia in Europe, and it has little timber
of native growth ; but it has seven large Government plantations, ranging in size
from 18,000 to 21,000 acres each. During each season the seven directors of these
forests meet the general director, or governor, at each forest in succession. The
object is to compare notes and to arrange for changes, or new modes and methods.
An afternoon and evening with the head forester of the Province, and a stroll through
the many species of trees planted forty years ago, gave us quite a clear idea of some
things relating to the system of forestry that we did not gather at the great con-
vention in Moscow. For instance, Russia bas 762 large Government forestry stations,
under the genera! charge of an equal nunuber of educated directors, most of whom
are college graduates, who have taken lessons in the forestry schools in a post-
graduate way. These forests contain 300,000,000 of acres. Those are divided into
12,502 named forests, which are under 7fci2 directors. A part of these Govei'nment
forests, in the north, were of native growth, but all of the central and southern Pro-
vinces have immense plantations of trees best suited to the somewhat varied steppes.
In some places the plantations are almost exclusively of Scotch pine ; in others, of
oak, birch, bass wood, elm, &c., «fcc. Mixed planting is not considered best, as a rule.

" In the steppes the planting has been done with the main idea of modifying the
climate, and new stations are now being organized in portions where the present
rainfall is only 6 inches per summer, and even drifting sands are now being planted

21

with salix centifolia (Caspian willow), to be followed, as soon as the surface is
covered, with Eiga pine."

"It is well that the Grovernment are awake to this prairie planting, as the people
destroy but never plant ; and nothing can convey the idea of utter desolation more
fully than a ride over these Eussian steppes."

Much as has been done in Eussia, forestry is still very imperfect, but they are
making rapid strides in improving their system.

The schools of forestry in Germany have exercised a remarkable influence on
the people, diffusing amongst them a great interest in forestry and arboriculture.
They have a great love for nature, and delight in frequenting their beautiful groves
and parks, that are to be found near every German town and city. The rural and
suburban adornments, now the pride of so many beautiful towns, are largely due to
the influence of the literature and training of the schools of forestry.

The history of schools of forestry goes back, in Germany, more than a century,
and there we find the best endowed, and, in some respects, the best managed institu-
tions of this kind everywhere. There are at present nine such establishments in the
German Empire, viz., two in Prussia, and one each in Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburg,
Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Brunswick and Saxe- Weimar.

In all the principal countries in continental Europe the woodlands belonging to
the Government, to local municipalities and public institutions, are under the care of
a special branch of administration, which not only looks after their management, to
prevent injuries or waste, but has for its special duty the restoration of forests when
cut at maturity, or at appointed times, and this by means which should most effectu-
ally secure the greatest possible benefit. This management requires a well organ-
ized staff of agents, properly adapted to the duties of their profession. All these
agents have been educated at forestry schools, where every branch of science essen-
tial to the cultivation and care of woodlands is taught, and illustrated by excursions
into the forests, and by practical labor in the nurseries and plantations connected
with the establishment. Students at these schools have their attainments tested on
entering and upon leaving, as well as at various stages of their progress, and at the
end of the prescribed course they may, upon successfully passing their examination,
enter into the forestry service in a subordinate grade, from which they may rise to
more important stations.

The range and extent of the course and a list of the professorships, and of the
studies taught by each, in the Forestry Academy, at Tharanadt, in Saxony, will illus-
trate what the student has to study.

Dr. Hough says of this academy : " The student must show, upon entering,
besides certain qualifications as to age, means of maintenance, &c., the attainments
implied in a full course of study at a gymnasium or a " Eeal Schule," and if he aspires
to the Saxon service, he must have worked half a year, under approved instruction,
in a forest.

" The course is divided among ten instructors, as follows: — (1) The director,
who teaches the history and literature of forestry, forest regulations and improvement
and police, and leads in excursions and practical exercises ; (2) a professor of arith-
metic, algebra, and geometry, and their application to forest work, and mechanics,
accompanied by mathematical exercises; (3) a professor of chemistry and chemical
technology, agricultural chemistry and laboratory work; (4) a professor of physics,
minerology and geology, who leads excursions in the application of these studies ;
(5) a professor of forest cultivation, protection and administration, hunting and
forest taxation, with practical excursions and exercises; (6) a professor of forestal
and general botany, and vegetable physiology, and microscopy, with exercises and
excursions in natural history ; (7) a professor of surveying, road-making, draining,
the calculus, &c., with excursions in surveying and measuring ; (8) a professor of
general forest industries, forest finance, and an encyclopedic view of agricultural
pasturage, &c. ; (9) a professor of zoology, and especially of entomology; and (10)
a professor of law and forest jurisprudence."

The academy at Tharanadt is exclusively devoted to forestry in its fullest com-
prehension,
3

22

At Hohonheim, the Eoyal Wurtemburg Academy is a school both of agriculture
and lortttry. Tho Hon. B. (jr. Northrop, CommiBsioner Irom the State of Connecti-
cut, who recently viiiitod this and other celebrated lorest academies, says: "Its
immense edilice, formerly a summer residence ot the Wurtemburg kings, is delight-
lully situated on a very high ground, nine miles from Stuttgart. Near tho building
is a tine park and experimental botanic gardens, groves, and arboricultural nursery.
Tbe botanic garden, covering over 12 acres, contains some 2,000 species and varieties
ot plants, important in lorest and naval ecoromy, and an exotic garden of 20
acres, hjieciall}' adapted to forest botany. Near by, upon the same mountain range,
is a lore^t district of about 6,000 acres, embracing a variety of soil and trees. The
iubtiiution has an extensive collection of implements used in practical forestry, with
models ol machines and studies pertaining thereto ; a museum of forest products, and
herbaiium, containing over 10,000 species, and a very interesting collection of micro-
scopic preparations, more extensive than I had elsewhere seen, with a various collec-
tion of pathological specimens, illustrative of diseased malformation, and some 7,000
specimens of fruits and seeds. Great varieties of fine wood, showing the texture and
grain, are exhibited in the museums of all forest schools, but this one is a remarkable
collection of ' microscopic specimens,' transverse sections of wood, thin as the finest
paper, arranged in books, as photographs, are set in the spaces of an album. Held
up to the light, these thin sections are translucent, almost transparent, and show the
most delicate t-hades in the grain of the wood. Here is also a collection of noxious
intects, and all animals harmful to trees. The insects are shown in all their progres-
6i\e bialefc — as eggf>, larvse, pupa, or chrysalis, caterpillar, and mothe, with their nests
arid preloiations in the stems or branches, and with samples of the trunk, bark,
brai ch, root, leaf, cone, or fruit, both tound and injured. For a careful comparison,
the healthlul and diseased tpecimens are placed side by side.

'J he curiiculum fills two years, and in the forebt department embraces, among
others, the following topics : —Forest economy ; history and literature of economy ;
forest produce ; sylva-culture ; forest protection ; technical properties of timber ; uses of
foret-ts, and forest technology; forest administiation, including mensuration of trees
atd forests ; partition of forests, for exploration ; valuation of forests, and practical
management of forests ; forest excursions in different forest districts ; botanic garden
and muteum ol forest products; cubic measurement of trees and cubic contents of
woud ; land surveying and levelling, and mensuration of forests with theodolite.

tor board, lodging and tuition, the native students pay about $40 per
annum, but foreign students are charged about $120. Many foreign (especially
El giifcb) students attend these academies, and Mr. Northrop says: "Dom Pedro
ijppieCiatis the national importance of forestry in Brazil. I was much interested in
an iniell gent and ambitious young Brazilian, who is here training himself for a
forest appointment in his native country."

A striking illustration of the influence of forest schools is seen in the number of
works on forestry that are published in the country. Most of these have emanated
from tbe professors and graduates of these fcchools, and there are catalogues of over
2,5li0 volumes on the subject of forestry, tree culture and botany, and over one bun-
dled new books ajipear annually in the German language; while the literature in
the Sj anisb lanyu^jge, on the same subjects, amounts to about 1,200 volumes. There
aie al^o publifhed, in both these languages, very able journals, devoted to the subjects
we have noted. 1 1 egret much that the works in the English language are very few,
atd that the only peuodical in America " The American Journal of Forestry," devoted
to the interests of foreistry, has been obliged to suspend for want of sufficient encour-
agement.

One of the oldest ard best schools of forestry in Europe is at Nancy, an old and
veiy inteiefcting city of France, in the department of Meurthe. The city is beauti-
fully ntuaicxl on the btrnk of a river, at the foot of a long range of wooded and vine-
clau hiils. lioth the city ai.d dtpartment are noted for their rare rural beauty, and
they ewe much of this to the influence of the famous school, which is now very
U teially huppoited, and is very complete in all its appliances.

Jnstiuction is given gratis to those who prepare for the State forest service, tho
importance of which may be inferred from the fact that the State forests cover about

S3

three millions of acres of land, with a gross revenue of about seven millions of dollars
a year, or deducting expenditure, a net revenue of about five millions of dollars a
year. A good many English students, who were preparing for service in the
forestry department in India, were graduates of this class of 1881. The expense for
uniform, tuition, &c., is about $500 per year. The course occupies three years, of
about ten hours daily work.

In winter, the session lasts from 1st November to 1st of May. Seventy-five
lectures, of one hour and a-half each, are given on forest economy, and the same
amount of time is allotted for the preparation of the subject of each lecture. The
course comprises the exploration of forests, relation of forests to climate, natural
history of different kinds of trees, management of forests, conversion of one form of
forest into another, and desirable qualities and defects of woods. The same number
of lectures and the same amount of study are devoted to botany — the structure,
organs, physiology and geographical distribution of plants. Of the SGJventy-five
lectures on mathematics, twenty are devoted to land surveying and levelling ; fifteen
are given to the preparation of plans, under a professor. There are lectures on road
and bridge-building, such as may be required in forest exploration ; on forest law,
and on the German language, together with instruction and drill, and practice in
horsemanship.

Of the summer session, which extends from 1st May to 1st September, thirty
days are given to excursions into the mountain forests of the Jura, Yosges, and other
ranges in which trees and shrubs are seen in all stages of treatment, and the student
has practical lessons in the measurement of wood and trees. Six days are occupied
in preparing a report of the tour of observation. Seven days are given to the
making of diagrams, with report, calculations and topographical plan, including
levels, with drawings of the same. Time is also given to the study of imaginary
projected roads, with drawings and specifications, and estimates relating to embank-
ments, masonry, &c., &c. About a week is devoted to military tactics, comprehending
shooting and sketching. Land surveying is also a prominent study during the
summer term.

In the second year the courses vary some, and are more extensive. The season
for cutting timber ; the ages of the different kinds of trees to be felled; the proper
time for a revolution of forest crop and its restoration ; mineralogy, lithology, and
the geological features of the country explored. Saw mills, gauging, water courses,
mill dams, water wheels, and the time required in the work of sawing, are all
included in the course of studies.

In the winter course of the third year, the advanced student, in addition to the
branches already enumerated, takes in zoology, with special attention to entomology,
the ravages committed by insects upon forests, the means of recovering of forests
thus ravaged, the reclaiming of barren wastes and the re-foresting of denuded
mountains, and the best means of preventing or lessening damage from mountain
torrents.

We shall notice one more of the great forest schools of Europe, the far-famed
Vallambrosa (shady valley), formerly a Benedictine monastry, founded in 1070 by
St. John Gualberto, and which was visited by Milton, in 1637. It is beautifully
situated in a valley of the Apponines, about 20 miles from Florence, and overlooks
the lovely scenery of the Val d'Arno. The present magnificent buildings were
erected in 1637 by Pope Urban VIII. Besides Milton, Byron, Dante and other poets
loved the inspiration of the lovely groves, many of which had been planted by the
monks, centuries ago, who understood well the economic value of tree planting.
Professor Northrop, who visited the place lately, says ; ** It is due to their sagacity
and foresight that tbeso vast lands are now densely covered with pines, larch and
chestnut. The very position of the trees, standing in exact rows, shows that tree plant-
ing on a large scale has been here suocassfully carried on for centuries. The property
was appropriated by the Italian Government in 1865, and opened as a school for
forestry in 1869, by royal decree. The system is not essentially different from that
of Nancy, and the institution is under the direction of Senor Adolphe de Berenger,
Director-General of Waters and Forests."
3i

24

Italy has experienced the injurious effects of foreflt denudation, in spring torrents
ai d u greet dimiuution in her water-courHcs, so essential to her fields for irrigation.

Fur some time there was considerable discussion as to whether forestry schools
should be isolated, or counec-ted, as an additional depai-tmeut, with existing universi-
ties 01- other institutions of u moie comprehensive character. This was a prominent
que.-tion for discussion ut the Congress of Foresters held at Frieburg, in liado.n, and
attended by about 400 members, representing all parts of Germany, Switzerland,
Austria and Russia. Leading writers on forestry wore there, as well us leading
Government officials in the management of forests.

The president of tbe convention was Dr. Naulinger, the eminent Professor of
Forestry ut Hohenheim. The discussion awakened great interest and lasted over six
hours.

A brief summary of the leading arguments shows the feasibility of connecting a
department of forestry with established universities, schools, or colleges. I quote
from Mr. Northrop's report: —

" The discussion was opened by Professor Danokolmann, of Eburwald, in
Prussia, defending the separate 'Forester Akademie.' He contended that universi-
ties are intended to aid thorough investigation in the abstract rather than in the
concrete Though rich fountains of knowledge, they do not teach practical skill.
The forest academies, on the other hand, keep the practical ever in view, and the
attainment of knowledge is always combined with practice. Four things are essen-
tial : Hirst, instruction in the technical work of forests ; next, in the management of
forests ; thiidly, in scientific researches ; and lastly, in the practical application of
theories. Special schools are best fitted to secure these results. The ' Hochschulen'
are located far away from any forest, and the professors are therefore less acquainted
with practical forestry, and the students, though more varied in their attainments,
will tail to know thoroughly the things most essential to their profession ; they will
remain strangers to forests, and will not learn how to question trees ; they may see cases
of dead iDsects,and yet learn nothing of the lives and habits of insects. To be a means
of instruction, the forest must be a demonstration ground, and should be so situated
that it can bo visited daily without fatigue or expense. Though the university is
the centre of culture and aristocracy, each of these is of secondary importance in the
training of forest technology. The professors of the accessory sciences are out of
sympathy with, and busy themselves with problems, irrespective of their relations to
forest science. If it be said that the universities have produced more eminent
thinkers and writers than the forest academy, the remedy should be found in the
academy, and in the enlargement of its course of studies, with opportunity for the
student to resort to the forest every day, proposing and solving his questions on
vegetable physiology and zoology."

The speaker who opened the discussion on the other side, Dr. Yon Seckendorf,
from Vienna, attributed the origin of isolated schools of forestry to the former state
of forests, and the limited education required for forest service in a bygone day.
But now a more scientific method of research in forsest matters has been intro-
duced, and a higher testing examination is demanded of students in forest science, A
liberal eoucation is essential here as well as in other professions. The advocates of
separate sihools of forestry claim two points of special superioi'ity. — First, that their
students are better trained in practical forestry; and, second, that in those only are
the studies conducted with due reference to the requirements of the forester. They
assume that in the vicinity of the university there are no forests suitable for the
proper iustiuction, and that a pui-ely theorectical education must only here prevail.
The assumptions are unfounded :

The number of university and 'Hochschule' towns in Germany richly sur-
rounded with woods is very great. It is not the extent of a forest which decides its
suitability as a means of instruction so much as its variety of trees and modes of
treatment and exploration.

Tbe second assumption will not bear examination. Science and practical work
are not antagonistic to each other. In the universities instruction does not go beyond
what is desirable for the educated man. And there ought to be no grounds for the
Buspicion that any students of forestry choose that department becatise it makes the

25

least demand upon them. Situated near railways, the universities have the best
facilities foi' forestral excursions and fullest demonstrations in the field. As a matter
of fact, the special schools do not turn out more practical men, and are not supplied
with better districts for excursions ; while, on the other hand, in the Allgimeine
flochschulen the instruction in the necessary science can be more complete and
extended, and be given at no additional expense to the State.

After a long and lively discussion, on a vote being taken, it was shown that a
majority were in favor of combining forestry with other departments in the university
or ' High Schulen.' It will be seen by this that the latest experience in Europe is in
favor of organizing a forest department in connection with some existing collegiate
institution.

In Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway and Eussia, forestry schools are mostly in
connection with schools of agriculture. The standard of education in these latter
countries for students of forestry, is not so high as in the former.

In Sweden, also, a system of forest education has been established on a very
liberal scale, although over 40 per cent, of the country is covered with valuable
forests.

FORBSTEY IN INDIA AND AUSTEALEA.

In India steps are being taken to organise a system of forest schools. Owing to
the dense population who, from time immemorial, enjoyed rights of usage in cultiva-
tion and pasturage, wholly inconsistent with successful forest culture, and whose
ancient prejudices had to be respected, and various abuses conciliated and overcome,
the Government, at the outset, found itself surrounded with difficulties that seemed
insuperable. These difficulties were grappled with and surmounted, and after ages
of improvidence, waste and destruction have been arrested. A forestry department
has been established, and the Government has sent students, at the expense of the
State, to France and Germany, to learn the most improved systems of forestry, as
taught in the schools of these countries.

There are now sixty millions of acres of forests under supervision and control of
the forestry department, with a net revenue of over a million and a quarter of dollars
per annum.

As soon as the heavy outlay for surveys and plantations, essential in the first
stage of the work, is lessened, the net revenue will greatly increase.

In South Australia, for many years, the woods and forests had been under the
control of a board of supervisors, but recently their management has been transferred
to a department, under the Commissioner of Crown Lands. At the end of the last
year there were nineteen forest reserves in a most satisfactory and prosperous condi-
tion. In fact, in the matter of forest conservancy, South Australia displays the most
systematic and rapid progress of any portion of Her Majesty's dominions. The old
board was comprised of gentlemen who took a deep and intelligent interest in the
work committed to them. The report for 1880-81 is now out, and in it may be seen
the results of tbe skill and indefatigable zeal of the officers in charge of the works.
Much progress has been made, and large areas have been planted with suitable trees,
many of which are exotic. It is also stated that farmers and land owners in the
colony are giving much attention to the subject, encouraged by the excellent example
of the Government. It is believed they will find a profitable mode of investment.

Many interesting details of the work in progress, and excellent suggestions
regarding the future management of the forests, are given in the report by the
conservator of the forests, J. B. Brown, F.L.S. There are nineteen forest
reserves, comprising a united area of 239,336 acres.

There are four well-established nurseries in connection with the department.

Planting and other conservancy operations have been conducted on eight
reserves.

The revenue from the plantations during the past six years has been in excess
of the expenditure.

The long season of drought which occurs yearly in Australia is very detrimental
to tree planting, and it is only with dilligence and great care that success is possible.

26

It is hoped that when a reasonable proportion of the acreage of the colony is covered
with trees that the climate will bo much ameliorated.

The other Australian colonio-<, following the good example sot by tho Grovern-
ment of South Australia, are now devoting much attention to the conservancy and
protection of forests. What success may have attended their efiforts I have not been
able to ascertain.

Tho physical history of every country proves that a reasonable extent of forest
promotes, in a high degree, both its agricultural and manufacturing interests, as
well as the productive resources of the country at large, and th9 beneficial influence
of the forests, in a physical, economical, and healthful aspect, is now receiving more
of that attention which its importance deserves.

PROPEE EXTENT OF FORESTS.

The next question which suggests itself to us is, what proportion of a country
should be occupied by trees?

Economists claim that from 25 per cent, to 30 per cent, of a country ought to
be covered with trees. This, of course, varies with the position, climate, physical
character, and commercial interests of a country. A country with a humid atmos-
phere has not the same need of forests as one that is dry and arid. Then there are
some districts of country that are not suitable for any other purpose than timber
raising, and others which are of little value for agricuUural purposes, and that might
be advantageously used for the purpose of tree planting. Couutries thus situated
might increase the percentaij^e of their forests as thoy like, but it is generally con-
ceded that no country should have less than one-fifth of its land in forests.

The following table, obtained from most reliable statistics, shows the proportion
of woodland in the diflferent countries, as estimated at the various dates: —

Date.

1870
1872
1874
1874
1875
1875
1875
1876
1876
1877
1877
1881
1881

Country.

Norway

Russia in Europe

France

Italy .

Austria

Hungary

Sweden

Denmark ,

Prussia

Great Britain ....

Ireland

United States

German Empire
Ontario (about)

Total
Acreage.

77,527,766

1,244,367,531

130,675,286

73,187,335

74,176,000

68,799,000

100,514,9J6

8,67 -',929

85,834,703

55,802,300

20,527,196

2,095,600,000

Acreage

in
Forests.

17,200,000

527,426,510

20,641,953

9,031,310

23,284,174

19,425,000

40,636,883

354,474

20,047,074

2,187,078

328,413

773,346,000

Per-
centage.

22-30

42-38

15-79

12-3i

31-40

28-24

40-43

4-25

23-36

3-92

1'26

35-00

25-04

33-00

The estimate which gives Ontario 35 per cent, is, I think, excessive. It is taken
from the report of the agricultural commission, and they relied upon the returns of
the assessors. In Ontario it has been customary to assess bush land much lower than
cleared land, and under such circumstances, lands not entirely fit for cultivation are
returned as bu-h lands. Assessors, as a rule, do not go over a farm to find out for
themselves ; and the small remuneration which the township assessor gets would not
encourage him to make stricter investigations.

As before stated, there are no data that enable us to estimate the extent of our
Dominion forest lanJs. Tho magnificent primeval forests of Ontario, Quebec and
New Brunswick, arc in a very redujed condition, as far as known, and it is a well
recognized fact, that as one advances towards the arctic circle, trees become stunted,
until t ley finally turn scrubs. In our newly acquired territory in the North- West

2T

there is an acreage of about 380,000,000 of fertile land, almost entirely destitute of
trees. The area of the United Kingdom is only equal to about one-fifth of these
lands, and it has been estimated that they are capable of maintaining, in comfort,
an industrious population of over 120,000,000 people, that number being equal to
the combined population of Germany, France, Italy and Spain, in 1871, and the
acreage of land much greater than that of all these States.

The climate of this vast territory is one of the healthiest in the world ; but it
is very dry, and ought, therefore, to have a large proportion of its acreage in woods.
Woods would have a most beneficial and ameliorating effect on the climate. They
would temper the cold winds of the spring, and retard autumnal frosts. It is a well-
established fact that the atmosphere of the woods in summer is much cooler as well
as moister, during the day, than in open field, and that the reverse is the case during
the night. As soon as the sun's rays leave the surface of the earth it chills very
rapidly, and often, in a dry climate, while the air at say 5 feet from the ground
■ is moderately warm, the temperature of the earth is chilled by radiation, and often
goes below the freezing point, while the air at an elevation of 5 or 6 feet is
several degrees warmer. The presence of woods would often arrest these early
frosts, more especially if the woods occupied the higher grounds. The moist, warm
air from the woods would spread out over the fields, after the sun had gone down,
and act as a protecting mantle to the unripe crops, and thus become the means of
arresting what otherwise would be an almost certain danger.

Professor John Tyndal made some very interesting experiments on radiation — .
and in a discourse or lecture recently delivered at the Eoyal Institute, in London,
gave his hearers the benefit of a description.

I shall, in the professor's own words, give such parts of his discourse as sustain
the theory of the difference at the earth's surface and at 4 feet above it. He says :
" I wished much to instruct myself a little by actual observation on this subject,
under the open sky, and my first object was to catch, if possible, states of the
weather that would enable me to bring my views to a practical test. About a year
ago a little iron hut, embracing a single room, was erected for my benefit, upon the
wild moorland of Hind Head. From the plateau on which the hut stands there is a
free outlook in all directions. Here, amidst the heather, I had two stout poles fixed
firmly in the ground, 8 feet asunder, and a stout cord stretched from one to the other.
From the centre of this cord a thermometer is suspended, with its bulb 4 feet above
the ground. On the ground is placed a pad of cotton wool, and on this cotton wool
a second thermometer, the object of the arrangement being to determine the differ-
ence of temperature between the two thermometers, which are only 4 feet apart.

" Permit me, at the outset, to deal with the subject in a perfectly elementary
manner. In comparison with the cold of space, the earth must be regarded as a hot
body, sending its rays, should nothing intercept them, across the atmosphere into
space. The cotton wool is chosen because it is a powerful radiator. It pours its
heat freely into the atmosphere, and, by reason of its flocculence, which renders it a
non-conductor, it is unable to derive from the earth heat which might atone for its
loss. Imagine the cotton wool thus self-chilled. The air in immediate contact with
it shares its chill, and the thermometer lying upon it partakes of the refrigeration.
In calm weather the chilled air, becau.se of its greater density, remains close to the
earth's surface, and in this way we sometimes obtain upon that surface a temperature
considerably lower than that of the air a few feet above it. On the other baud, the
earth's surface, during the day, receives from the sun more heat than it loses by its
own radiation, so that when the sun is active the temperature of the surface exceeds
that of the air.

" These points will be best illustrated by describing the temperature for a day,
beginning at sunrise and ending at 10: iO p.m., on the 4th of March.

" The observations are recorded in the annexed table ; the elevation of the place
is 850 feet above sea level ; the sky is cloudless, with a hoar frost and a light north-
east wind. The first column in the table contains the time at which the two
thermometers were read. The column under "Air " gives the temperature of the
air ; the column under " Wool," gives the temperature of the wool ; while the fourth
gives the difference between the two temperatures. It is seen at a glance that from

sanriee to 9:20 a.m. the cotton-wool is colder than the air; at 9:30 the temperatures
are alike. This is the hour of intersection, which is immediately followed by inver-
sion. Throughout the day, and up to -i p.m., the wool is warmer than the air. At
4 5 p.m., the temperatures are again alike ; while, from Ihat point downwards, the
loss of terrestial radiation is in excess of thegain derived from all sources, the refriger-
ation receiving a maximum at 7:30 p.m., when the difference between the two
thermometers amounted to 10° Fahrenheit.

" When the observations are continued throughout the night the greater cold
of the surface is found to be maintained until sunrise, and for some hours beyond It.
Had the air been perfectly still during the observations, the nocturnal chilling of the
surface would have been in this case greater ; for you can readily understand that
even a light wind sweeping over the surface and mixing the chilled with the warmer
air, must seriously interfere with the refrigeration.

Course of Temperature, 4th March, 1883*

Time.

(intersection),
(inversion)....

6.60 a.m. (sunrise).

7.20 "

8.05 "

8.20 " ■

9.15 "

9.20

9.30

9.40
10.15 "
11.00 "
11.30 "
12.00 noon
12.30 p.m..

1.00 " .,

2.00 " ..

2.30 " ..

3.00 " .,

3 30 " .,

4.00

4.05

4.10

4.15

4.30

7.00

7 30

8.30

9.40

10.20

" (interaection).
" (inversion)

Air.

Degrees.
31
32^
35
35
40
41
41
41
42i
45
47
50
50
50
49
48
49
48
47
47
47
47
46
35
35
34
33
32

Wool.

Degrees
25
24i
27
30
38
40
41
42
45
52
55
69J
59"
57
60
58
66
62
48
47
45
43
41
26
25
24.
24i
24

Difference.

Degrees.
6
8
8
5
2
1
0
1

?*

8

11
10

7

4

1

0

2

4

5

9
10

n

8

Wind fiom north-east; stars very bright.

*' Various circumstances may contribute to lesson, or even to abolish the differ-
ence between the two thcrmoraeteri— haze, fog, cloud, rain, snow, are all known
to be influential. These are visible impediments to the outflow of the heat from the
earth ; but we have now to deal with the most powerful obstacle to that outflow, to
which reference has been already made, and which is entirely insensible. The pure
vapor of waters, for example, is a gas as insensible as the air itself. It is every-
where diffused through the air, but, unlike the oxygen and nitrogen of the atmos-
phere, it is not constant in its quantity. We have now to examine whether meteoro-
logical observations do not clearly indicate it^ influence on terrestrial radiations.

" With a view to this examination, 1 will choose a series of observations made
daring the afternoon and evening of a day of extraordinary calmness and serenity.
The visible condition of the atmosphere at the time was that which hasj hitherto

29

been considered most favorable to the outflow of terrestrial beat, and therefore best
calculated to establish a large difference between the air and wool-thermometer. The
16th of last January was a day of this kind, when observations recorded in the
annexed table were made.

" January 16. — Extremely serene ; air almost a dead calm ; sky without a cloud ;
light southerly wind : —

Time.

Air.

Wool,

Difference.

3'40 p.m....

Degrees.

43

42

41

40

38

37

37

36

36

36

35J

35

34

35

35

35

Degrees.

37
35
35
34
32
28
30
32
31
28
28
26
25
27
28
29

Degrees.
6

3-50 "

4-00 " .....MM

7
6

4'15 «' „

6

4-30 "

500 "

6>30 "

6
9
7

6*00 " ..••* ~

4

6*30 "

5

7*00 "

8

7-30 "

8*00 "

9

8'30 *'

9

9*00 "

8

10-00 "

7

10*30 "

6

"During these observations there was no visible impediment to terrestrial
radiation. The sky was extremely pure ; the moon was shining ; Orion, Pleiades,
Charles' Wain, including the small companion star at the end of the shaft, the north
star, and numbers of others, were already visible. After the last observation, my note
book contains the remark : ' Atmosphere exquisitely clear ; from zenith to horizon,
cloudless all around.'

" A moment's attention bestowed on the column of difference in the foregoing
table will repay us. Why should the difference at 6 p.m. be fully 6° less than at 5
p.m.? And again, 5° less than at 8 p.m. and at 8.30 p m. respectively? There
was absolutely nothing in the aspect of the atmosphere to account for the approach
of the two thermometers at 6 o'clock — nothing to account for their subsequent diver-
gence from each other. Anomalies of this kind have been observed by the hundred,
but they have never been accounted for, and they did not admit of explanation until
it had been proved that the intrusion of a perfectly invisible vapor was competent
to check the radiation, while its passing away reopened a doorway into space."

It will be noticed that the wind, during the observations recorded in the above
table, was light south-westerly, and therefore charged more or less with vapor from
the Atlantic. On the 10th of December, while the wind was in an opposite direction,
he made another series of observations. " At 8:5 a.m. the two thermometers were
taken from the hut, having a common temperature of 35°. The one was rapidly
suspended in the air and the other laid upon the wool. 1 was not prepared for the
result. A single minute's exposure suflElced to establish a difference of 5° between
the thermometers, and an exposure of five minutes a difference of 15° ; while,
after au exposure of ten minutes, the difference was found to be no less than 17°."
Here follow some of the observations :

30

December 10. — Deep snow; low tomperatare; sky clear; light, north-east air.

Time.

Air.

Degrees.
29
29
27
26
26
27
29

Wool.

Difference.

Degrees.
16
12
12
11
10
11
11

Degrees.
13

815 "

8-20 "

8-30 " - :

17
16
16

8-40 "

16

8 45 "

16

8 60 "

18

Px'ofessor Tyndall continues : " I will limit myself to citing one other case. On
the evening of the Slst of March, though the surface temperature was far below the
dew point, very little dew was deposited. The air was obviously a dry air. The
sky was perfectly cloudless, while the barely perceptible mwement of the air was
from the norlh-west. At 10 p.m. the temperature of the air thermometer was 37°,
that of the wool thermometer being 20°, a refrigeration of 17° being therefore
observed on this occasion."

These experiments show most remarkably an extraordinary difference of tem-
perature within a space of 4 feet above, and at the earth's surface, and will, to
some extent, account for what has often been inexplicable— the blighting of fields of
grain while thermometers indicated a temperature considerably above the freezing
point. The drier the atmosphere the more liable are we to this remarkable refriger-
ation of the earth's surface; consequently, the greater and more imperative the
necessity for planting forest trees on our North- West plains. The earth is covered
with a screen of aqueous vapor; this screen is densest near the equator; at the sea
level it diminishes as altitude and latitude increase. It is, however, claimed that
the presence of large bodies of woods store up the warm, humid atmosphere during
the hours of sunshine ; and at night they mingle this with the dry atmosphere of
the adjoining plains, preventing such results as the observations of Professor Tyndall
exhibit.

NECESSITY FOR TREE-PLANTING ON OUR PRAIRIES AND PLAINS.

Of the great necessity of tree-planting on our prairies and plains there cannot
be a particle of doubt. Fuel and shelter are among the first wants of the settlers.
With these wants supplied, the country would be all that could bo desired to make a
people happy, healthy, self-reliaot and respected.

Some scientists say that the character of the soil of the high plains is such that
trees will not grow thereon ; but the experience of the pioneers of the adjoining
Territories and States affords promise of unquestionable success. In Dakota, Iowa
and Nebraska the condition of soil, climate and physical aspect resemble, in a
remarkable degcee, those of our prairie lands; and, more than that, there are good
grounds for believing that all these plains were once covered with forests ; that they'
are treeless because the Indians, taught by their necessities, made it a practice to
burn the grass annually, which made the growth more luxuriant, and consequently
more inviting to the vast herds of buffalo on which they depended greatly for their
subsistence. It has been conclusively settled that no herb but buffalo-grass will
grow on ground over which fire has passed until another season, so that the yearly
prairie fires spread over the plains until they became almost measureless in their
extent.

The Indians have a tradition that it was only after the introduction of the horse
that prairie burning began. The horse progressed gradually from Mexico towards
the north, and the burning of the forest- was resorted to in order to secure good

31

hunting grounds, and that fires were kindled annually to make the pastures more
attractive to buffalo and other large game.

Mr. Mechan cites several instances where trees had grown again, when fires had
been discontinued.

Dr. Eobert Bell, in the Geological Eeport for 1875, says:—

" Bearing upon the question in reference to the formation of prairies, and the
causes which prevent them from becoming covered with trees, I may mention the
fact that on the second steppe, at least, the character of the soil, locally, has an im-
portant relation to the wooded or open conditions which we find prevailing at the
jjresent time. In this region the distance of trees seems to depend upon the capacity
of the soil for recovering and retaining the proper amount of moisture. The clayey
loam of the Touchwood Hills supports a continuous, thick and strong growth of
trees ; whereas the gravelly and sandy soil of the surrounding country produces little
more than scattered clumps of aspens and willows. On entering the Five-Mile Woods
in the Severn valley, the change from light sandy to a stiff, clayey soil, is at once
observable. The belt of heavy timber which I passed through between Big Boggy
Creek and the upper part of the Shell River corresponds with a stronger soil, and,
generally, in the Duck Mountain region, where the country presents a mixture of
prairie openings and woods, the former correspond with the lighter, and the latter
with the stronger soil. Another instance of a thick growth of trees upon a clayey
area is found in the Bad Woods, near the western boundary of Manitoba, on the
middle trail to Fort Ellice, and many more examples might be mentioned. Con-
versely, the di'ier sand and gravel areas are usually devoid of timber, although the
depressions among the sand dunes and ridges seem to be the favorite habitat of the
scrub oak. Near Fort Bllice, the bouldery clay of Beaver Ci'eek, and of the north-
facing slopes of the Calling Eiver, are thickly covered with poplars, while the gravelly
and sandy area above the banks, stretching for some twenty miles to the west, and
fifty to the north, is destitute of timber, except here and there, where some local
change allows the trees to take root. The gravelly and sandy plain to the north side
of Fort Pelly, and the set of open ridges, of which Beautiful Plain is one, are similar
examples. The geological history of the lowest steppe has probably been different
from that of the others ; yet, even here, examples of conditions resembling the fore-
going are not wanting. On both the second and third steppes the northern slopes
of valleys are wooded, while those facing southward are quite bare. The banks of
the Calling River form a good example of these conditions, which are, no doubt, due
to the influence of the sun — first, in melting away the snow in the early spring, and
afterwards in parching the bank during the summer ; while on the northward slope
sufficient moisture is obtained to admit of the growth of trees. Although the surface
of the barren, treeless district along the foot of the Coteau, from near the head of the
South Saskatchewan to the head waters of the Souris River, consists of clay instead of
sand, the absence of timber here also is due to the same cause, namely, want of suffi-
cient moisture. The surface of the ground is here formed of the almost undisturbed
stiff clay or marl of the tertiary formation, which resists the water, and is incapable
of retaining, throughout the hot, dry summer, any moisture which might enter it
during the winter or spring. As a consequence, the ground has become deeply
fissured and baked as hard as unburned bricks."

The character of the soil and the condition under which trees were found grow-
ing by Dr. Bell are similar to those found south of the boundary line, in Dakota and
Nebraska, There is no doubt, however, if we may judge from the experience which
has been obtained south of the 49th parallel, that with proper care and due attention
to the requisite protection from weeds, cattle and fire, trees will grow well on
these sand dunes and gravelly hills, that are not much use for anything else.

One of the greatest barriers to success is the want of moisture. The hills of
these rolling prairies, in their normal condition, shed the water like a house roof,
often causing floods in the valleys and declivities that are dangerous to the lives of
unwary travellers.

Some ten years ago a detachment of American soldiers were encamped in a dry
creek in Western Kansas. During the night a heavy rain fell. The water in the
creek and runs rose so rapidly that the men had to decamp and run for their lives.

82

Unfortunately, six of them perished in the flood that overwhelmed them. The waters
Bubnidcd almost as rapidly as thoy rose, having all run off without moistening the
parched earth to any perceptible extent.

As soon, however, as these prairies are broken up, so that the rains can pene-
trate and remain in the soil to a much greater extent, trees will grow. In Nebraska
and Dakota millions of trees bave been planted, and I saw last summer n883)
magnificent groves of trees, where ten year:? ago, nothing could be seen but a dreary
waste.

There is a Menonnite settlement in Manitoba where, in seven years from the
turning of the first sod, these settlers are enjoying the shade of large groves of trees
which they had planted. Many similar instances of success are found in Iowa and
Nebraska.

I give some extracts from a report made by ex-Governor E. W. Forness, of
Nebraska, in December, 1882. It throws much light on what has been done, as well as
what may yet be done in that State. The report was made by direction of the Com-
missioner of Agriculture for the United States. He says: —

"This paper is intended only as a brief presentation of experiences and results
concerning the culture and tree-growing on the western plains, made by and coming
under the immediate observation of the writer, during a residence of twenty-seven
years west of the Missouri Eiver, in the Territory and State of Nebraska, the princi-
pal object being to f>how what has been done practically, is being, and may be done,
converting a naturally timberless portion of country into a tree-growing region.
Taking the geography of boyhood's days, together with official reports of Captain
Miles, U. S. A., and the western explorer. Colonel Fremont, relating to that portion
of the national domain situated between the Missouri Eiver and the Eocky Moun-
tains, as a basis for concIusionSi there was nothing at the date (1834) enticing to
enterprising adventurers seeking new homes in the far west. The thought that the
then naked plains would ever be transformed into groves of valuable timber was not
entertained."

Governor Furness describes how the early pioneers discovered that when
prairie fires were kept out there was a spontaneous indigenous growth of valuable
varieties of timber. Still later, it was found that native seedings transplanted into
carefully prepared soil did well on high uplands out on the open prairie — not only did
well, but grew with remarkable vigor and rapidity. To those of indigenous growth
were added, in time, varieties of foreign origin. While success followed efforts in
this direction, only the most sanguine experimenters had faith in ultimate practical
results. In time the Territorial, and later the State Legislature, made liberal appro-
priations, and timber-growing in Nebraska is now universally conceded to be a
success.

From 1854 up to and including 1882, covering a period of 28 years' reliable
official statistics, it is found that there have been planted within the borders of what
is now the State of Nebraska no less than 244,306 acres of forest trees. This includes
seedlings, seeds and cuttings, planted in forests, groves and by highways. It is also
estimated that since precautions have been taken against fire the spontaneous indi-
genous growth is equal to one-half of that area.

Personal observation would warrant a larger proportion. J. T. Allen, of Omaha,
ex-secroiary of the American Forestry Association, now an official of the Union
Pacific Eailway Company, a close observer, in a letter to Governor Furness, says : —
" I have watched the spontaneous growth of young elms, oaks, walnuts, ash, hickories,
&c., since fires have been kept buck, and seen their growth among the hazel bush,
which is the fringe in the border of native timber, dividing it from the prairie. I
hardly think that I am out of the way in setting the spontaneous growth at double
the amount of timber planted."

The fact noticed by Dr. Bell, of the Geological Survey branch, that trees are
found growing on the sides of river banks facing to the north, and also on the northern
slopes of hills, is noticeable everywhere on the plains, and is accounted for by the
positions being less exposed to the sun's rays and the hot winds that come all the
way from the Stano-Estacada, or Staked Plain. The winds that come from this Stano-
Estacada have a parching and withering influence on all the vegetation of the plains —

83

is, in fact, almost as bad as the sirocco ot the Lybian deserts, that desolates the fields
of Malta, Sicily and rorthern Italy. It has been found that on the north side of plan-
tations spontaneous natural growth is frequently the result, shelter from the
sun and hot winds being a most essential factor in the early struggles for life in the
young trees on the plains.

Governor Furness, in concluding his valuable paper, says : — " Thus far, few ills
have attended timber culture in this State. The great losses, or failures, have been
from careless handling, planting and after neglect. Where ground had been well and
deeply prepared, good healthy plants used, care exercised in handling and planting,
followed by attention and proper cultivation, until able to care for themselves, there
has been no good cause of complaint.

" Too much importance cannot be attached to spontaneous timber growing.
Nature, in this respect, is both accommodating and bounteous in her provisions.
Waste places, as a rule, are utilized. Lands which, if at all adapted to other uses, could
only be prepared at extra expense, are those nature occupies and renders of value.
This growth comes of its own accord, so to speak, without preparation or labor by
man, other than to guard against fires. A belief is freely expressed that greater
proportionate successful tree-growing, and at comparatively no expense, has been done
by nature than by planting. As stated before, by far the greater proportion of these
stand and succeed than those of artificial processes. Losses are rare, and only from
occasional invading fires, and where too thick on the ground the stronger kill out
the weaker — no loss, in fact — simply adjusting or equalizing. Personal knowledge is
had of many instances where lands, twenty years ago considered worthless, are now
valued at from 020 to $100 per acre, solely for the timber naturally grown."

In Dakota experimental tree-planting has been attended with considerable
success, and settlers are very sanguine of ample reward for their labors in that
direction. The railroad companies are alive to the necessity of putting she'ter belts
along their roads, as well as providing for a future supply of cross-ties and sleepers for
the repairs and extension of the tracks. The Northern Pacific Eailroad Company,
in 1882, expended over $70,000 in tree-planting. They expect to be more than
recouped in 12 years, for outlay and interest, by the thinning oaL of the plantations.
They are still extending their work of tree-planting, and soon hope to have shelter
belts that will secure them against drifts. In the winter of 1882-83 the loss by wear
and tear of locomotives in bucking against snow drifts, together with the other
contingent expenses connected therewith, entailed a loss to the company of over
$100,000. Their forester says that, in five years from the time of planting these
shelter belts, the road will be secure against snowdrift obstructions.

The success attending these plantations gives strength and color to the belief
that these plains were at one time covered with trees. Mr. P. P. Baker, in his report,
already referred to, says : *' The theory that the high plains were once covered with
forests, and that at no remote period, is sustained by some remarkable facts. It is
certain that the trunks of large trees are found in the bluffs and hills miles away
from the water courses, and that not many years ago these giants ot centuries'
growth were quite numerous."

Professor F. B. Hough, in the first volume of his report, says: "It is evident
that within a comparatively recent geological period timber grew on portions of
Nebraska now entirely destitute of natural forests. Professor Aughey found, in 1868,
in Cedar county, a log over 60 feet in length, and many others of various sizes. The
charred roots of pine trees are often found sticking out of the ground, along the
Nebraska Eiver, on the northern border of the State, more than 50 miles distant from
the nearest forest of to-day. The cause of the disappearance may fairly be ascribed
to the destructive summer fires in exceptionally dry seasons, and this charred
appearance of the roots helps to confirm this theory, which is further supported by
obscure Indian traditions."

The late gallant General Custer, who had more than ordinary opportunities for
acquiring knowledge on the point, and of observing the peculiar character of this
remarkable country, in his interesting work, "My Life on the Plains," says:
" Favoring the theory that the plains were at one time covered with forests, is the

34

fact that entire trunks of huge trees have been found in a state of petrifaction on
elevated positions of the country, and fai- removed from water-courses."

One of the most interesting works that I find anywhere on the subject of the
^reat prairies of the " Deserts of America," is by the Abb6 Dorainich, published by
Longman & Co., of London, li:68. His pen-painting of this great and wonderful land
is beautiful. Kcfcrring to the absence, or rather scarcity of trees, he says :r—

" Wormwood and artemis plants are the predominating productions of the great
plains, as likewise of all the other deserts; the origin of forests imagined by our
novelists, are only to bo met with in fertile grounds, and do not grow on arid soil.
It is only towards the north that the prairies are dotted with forests, the existence of
which has never been explained in a (satisfactory manner, for they are sometimes
expoFed on heights where the wind would be apt to destroy them, and nevertheless
they do not appear to sulfer from its influence. To the north of the Nebraska these
vast plains are less diversified, but more even, and are constantly refreshed by the
breeze. Turf, bespangled with odoriferous and bright-colored flowers, adorns the
dells and hills on which buffaloes and deer graze peacefully. It is evident that those
regions were formerly wooded, for trunks of trees, and even entire trees, petrified,
are often seen. Some savants attribute the disappearance of the ancient foreets that
heretofore covered the western prairies to the action of fire ; others, to the change
that the climate underwent, or to the natural sterility of the soil."

His description of the great overland trail, though not absolutely bearing on the
subject of forestry, is, nevertheless, worthy of reading :

** In the great prairies, the undulations are formed by either hills of sand or of
different kinds of soil or rock, which have often a most picturesque eff'ect ; they vary
from 60 to 400 feet in height. The ground rises as it advances towards the west ;
for instance, the Kansas, &i its junction with the Kepublican, is 930 feet above the
Gulf of Mexico, and 150 miles more to the west it is 1,590 feet above the sea. The
uniformity of these solitudes is only interrupted by a few hills or cf,lcariou8 or sandy
mountains, united in confused naasses, cut up by ravines, and having the appearance
of a fallen world. At other times they are intercepted by arid and rocky heights,
which are almost im},ias6able. In the middle of this ocean of verdure, whose enor-
mous waves ever follow one another in their eternal mobility, winds, perhaps, the
proudest road in the world, the one that the immigrants from Europe and the United
States traced out, that they might the more easily go to enrich themselves at the
gold mines of California. This immense avenue is like an area continually swept by
the winds. The caravans that have passed and that still pass on this road are so
numerous that the grass has no time to grow there. The savages, who had never
seen any other thoroughfare but the hunting trails in the wilds, fancied, when they
saw this road, that the entire nation of the whites had emigrated towards the setting
sun, and that a vacuum was to exist in the countries where the sun rises. The graves of
travellers succeed each other on the right and on the left of this great path of life and
death, and the solitude around, like a funeral veil, overwhelms them with the image
of rejjose and of the infinite. Numerous remnants of divers objects from exhausted
caravans— entire families dying, cut down by disease, fatigue and misery — then the
ground, whereon lie side by side and for evermore, whole populations of emigrants.
Here and there funeral stakes are planted in the desert, bearing tokens of some great
warriors or old sachems renowned for their wisdom. Extensive bone heaps indicate
where entire droves of buff'aloes were slaughtered by improvident Indian hunters.
Elvers of all sizes roll their muddy waters over their beds of sand. Clumps of
willows, or poplars, sparsely set on their banks, throw their melancholy shade over
the silent waters. Koebucks and antelopes timidly brouse on tl/e green sward of the
prairie, with stretched-out ears, and ready to take flight at the least noise that may
occur, for in these places a noise is always the signal of danger."

Eeference has already been made to the baneful effects of the hot winds that
frequently prevail on the plains; but it is only by experience that one can appreci-
ate the intensity of their suffocating and parching heat, that exerts such a pernicious
influence, not only on vegetable but also on animal life. I have seen men and
animals remain for hours exposed to alltherigois of an afternoon's summer sun,

35

under the lee of a bluff, which afforded shelter from the sickening blast, although the
delay entailed hunger and thirst, rather than encounter its blighting heat.

Bud as these siroccos are, they &re harmless when compared with the terrible
and destructive "blizzards" of the winter season. So destructive of life have these
blizzards been, that people thoroughly conversant with western life assert that dread-
ful as have been the tomahawk and scalping knife of the Indian, the blizzards have
caused greater loss of human life on those desolate plains.

The following description of one of these blizzards appeared in the Iowa Horti-
cultural Report of 1872, from the pen of Mr. J. T. Mott : —

"I have oftentimes wondered how it could be that people were so easily lost in
these storms — why it was that a man in good health, strong in limb and well clad,
could not go a few rods from his house to the barn to care for his stock without
danger of death ; why whole sleigh loads of people were frozen to death within a
hundred yards of dwellings, and this in the same location where I was living. But
lately it has been my fortune (or, as I thought at the time, misfortune) to be caught
in one of these storms in Minnesota; and it took only a short time for me to see
through the whole thing. I first felt the wind blowing gently from the south ; in
lees than thirty minutes it changed to a fierce gale from the west, bringing with it a
bank of snow, compared to the rush of water as the flood gates are opened in a mill
race, and with a force that no man or team could travel against it for a mile, as
steady as a bellows run by machinery, being filled with snow as fine as the finest
dust, and so thick one could not see 10 feet, filling the eyes and nosti'ils of man and
beast. The storm lasted three days * * ^ and the news is of hundreds of dead
people, frozen in stage coaches ; whole sleigh loads frozen to death while returning
home from town ; men standing dead, with a hand on the stable door latch ; others
that saved themselves by burrowing in snow banks ; little children lost going home
from school ; passengers in railroad cars two days without food, &c., &c.

" More people have been frozen to death within the last year in north-west
Iowa and west Minnesota than are now murdered by Indians in these countries
since their settlement. ^ * ^ The people are now petitioning their Legislature
for some kind of protection from these storms, asking that fences and storm-houses
be built along the travelled roads — atking them to do something for their safety. I
see nothing that would do but tree-planting. It alone would do to stop these terrible
winds, modify the climate, and furnish land marks to the traveller."

An American officer has told me of his experience in one of these blizzards. He
was in command of a regiment of United States cavalry, and in pursuit of an Indian
war party, and the scene wts western Dakota. The command was going north,
travelling slowly, waiting the return of scouts. Suddenly a black wall began to
loom up in the west ; its blackness and its vastness began to increase, as if in it all
the teamsters and builders in creation were at work in shoving things. The com-
mand at once took in the situation. There was a high blufi", with perpendicular sides,
some two miles ahead, and he instantly gave orders for an advance with all possible
speed. It was a 1 ide for life. They reached the shelter just as the storm struck
them, and life was only preserved by continued exercises of men and horses during
that terrible night. The waggons containing the tents and supplies were not so for-
tunate. Their teams, which were some distance in the rear, were overwhelmed in
the fearful snow-drift ; the mules could not travel fast enough to bring the teamsters
into shelter before the snow enshrouded them. The poor mules perished in the
terrific cold ; the men in charge with difficulty saved themselves by huddling
together under the bufitilo skins which the waggons contained.

Many other harrowing accounts could be given of suffering and death caused by
these fearful winter storms ; but enough has been given to show the great necessity
of sherter-belts and other forests, to make this fertile land desirable as a home. That
something should be done, and done quickly, there can bo no particle of doubt — not
for the protection of human life alone — the trees would aftbrd shelicr for cattle and
other domestic animals, and it is a well-known fact that pasture continues fresh and
green much longer in the shade of trees than when exposed to the full glare of the

BUD.

36

In connection with the subject of praine tree-planting, Mr. Stewart Thayne,
whom we have already quoted, tays : —

" In iho various accounts I have had of the prairie lands of the North- Weet, 1 find
frequent mention made of the sudden charjges of temperature. Severe frosts occur
eomoliraes utter the crops have been reaped ; or the temperature of the night is much
lower than that of the day. Then these plains are expoh^ed to violent tempests
through the cold currents of Arctic regions coming into contact with the heated ones
of the plains. To ameliorate a climate presenting such contrasts, there is only one
method, that of tree-planting, wherever the nature of the soil will permit, and
forming the settlements under the shelter of these plantations. Of so great importance
is this to our western country that, in my opinion, upon its solution depends whether
that region will realise the sanguine expectations now entertained of its being able to
support an immense population ; or whether, after many sore disappointments,
perhaps, it will deserve the name of the ' Lone Land.' "

The work to be done is one of great magnitude. The Government, the railroad
companies, the land companies, and the people, have all to do their share. But the
initiative must be taken by the Government ; and I am satisfied that the first and
most essential step that could be taken in promotion of this great work would be the
establishment of forestry experimental stations at several points in Manitoba and
the North- West. The great importance of such stations cannot be over-estimated ;
their absence was long felt in Europe, and in 1868, at a congress of foresters held at
Vienna, in which the principal German States were represented by forest officers of
distinction, a committee was appointed who drew up a report which was adopted, and
the establishment of forest experimental stations throughout Germany was the result.

In an able and interesting paper, read by Adolphe Lowe, secretary of the Ohio
Forestry At^sociation, at Cincinnati, last April, entitled, "Our Next Problem," he
thus alludes to these German forestal experimental stations : —

" The great aim of these stations is to furnish a scientific as well as practical
foundation for a rational management of forests, based upon exact experiments and
careful investigation. They are intended to determine the significance of forests in
the economy of nature, and to try the various methods of forest management, and to
examine the advantages which one method may have over another, and finally to
establish a plan of forest administration which will enable us to realise the greatest
profits, and at the same time reduce the expense of their administration."

To us who are, as it were, in the A B G of forestry education, the experimental
stations would be a great benefit, and I think steps should be immediately taken
towards their establishment. They would enable us to solve many of the problems
that otherwise might lead to pitfalls and failures. Extensive tree-planting on the
plains present many, and perhaps insuperable difficulties, and the experience to be had
at these stations would show us how to avoid failures and guide us on the road to
success. In them we could find out not only what trees could be grown, and their
adaptability to the soil, but we could also determine the value of forest litter on the
growth of trees. In them, also, a study could be made of the animal and vegetable
foes of trees, and pei-haps the best means devised to counteract them. There, also,
could be learned the best method of planting and thinning, and reliable tables of
increase could bo acquired, as well as the most practical methods of valuing forests.

There would be also failures to notice, and thereafter to avoid, for knowledge
thus gained is a direct advantage, by preventing future disappointment and loss.

These stations should be of considerable size, so that there might be opportunity
of testing the merits and diversity of depth and character of soil and sub-soil; and to
be of easy access in the way of location, in regions not far distant from leading lines
of railroads. They could be utilized as nurseries for raising young trees to
supply the settlers, as well as for future use in forest plantations. They could also
be made stations for meteorological observations, thus afibrding further opportunity
of continuing scientific experiments for the public good.

After the positions of the stations had been determined on, the first work to be
done on a forest reserve would be the providing of suitable buildings for the super-
intendent and his stafi, during the building oi which land for ihe planting of wind-
breaks or shelter belts could be prepared. For this purpose the most convenient of

3-7

the indigenous young trees to be found might be utilized. There would be little or
no difficulty in finding on the sand bars or banks of many of the streams and rivers
sufficient young cottonwood and willow trees for this purpose.

The experience already gained by those who have had opportunities of testing
the merits of the different native trees and shrubs would lead us to adopt, in the
first instance, for the purpose stated, the two kinds above named, and the box elder
or ash-leaved maple. They are hardy, tough, and seem to be best adapted to resist
the force of the winds which blow over these plains with great violence, and are as
constant as the trade winds that blow over the ocean in low latitudes.

Within these shelter belts there should be room for extensive experimental
investigation of forestry in all its bearings, and it might even be deemed advisable
to connect them with experiments in horticulture and agriculture.

A first position and absolute necessity would be a thorough preparation of the
soil. Without this, failure is sure to follow. The sod on the prairies is peculiarly
tough, and can only be made subservient by judgment, labor and patience. The
time for the first ploughing is when the vegetation is most vigorous, and before the
ground becomes hardened with drought, as it often does in the latter part of summer.
Of course, the seasons vary much in the quantity of rain that falls, and the facilities
for ploughing would be much influenced by circumstances. From observation, expe-
rience and information carefully gleaned, I would advise the growing of a grain
crop the first year after preparing the soil. This would leave the soil in much bet-
ter condition, and the young plants would be less liable to be choked by weeds.

It would be well, when possible, to select tracts of land that contained soil of vari-
ous characters — clayey, loamy and sandy. Within these shelter belts, by careful obser-
vation, the influence of the trees in the difi'erent soils might bo more accurately
determined. In fact, heie would bo a field for careful observation and experiment,
off'ering an opportunity of discovering and making known to the country such
results as might be found important to the settlers.

A considerable amount of manual labor would be required on these stations,
and an opportunity would here offer for the employment of young men who might
wish to acquire practical knowledge of tree-planting and forestry, who, under com-
petent direction, might fit themselves for its higher grades.

As several such stations would be necessary in order to be of more genoral use
to all in our vast territory, and as the range of climate — which is influenced as much
by altitude as latitude — would necessitate a variety in the experiments to be made,
the student might be allowed to spend a portion of his time in each, thus affording
him an opportunity of acquiring a larger and more extended field of information.

Speaking of these forestal experimental stations. Professor Lowe, whom we have
already quoted, says: "Avery successful beginning has already been made in
Germany, where the idea of forestal experimental stations originated. One or more
chief, with an appropriate number of secondary stations, have been founded in nearly
every State of Germany. The great importance which the Governments of the
respective States attach to these stations may be seen from the fact that in Germany
about $80,000 are expended annually for the maintenance of these stations, and from
the other, that the number of these stations is steadily increasing. Austria, Switzer-
land, Italy, Spain, and even Eussia, are following the example of Germany.

"If these countries, in which the attainments of forestry are truly great, deem
it advisable and necessary to submit the maxims of long experience to a series of
scientific investigations and systematic experiments, how much should we, on this
side of the Atlantic, who are profoundly ignorant of almost everything pertaining to
forestry, make an eflort to base that system which is to be our guide in the raising
and management of forests upon scientific principles?

" The great need of forestal experiment stations in the United States and the
Dominion and Provinces of Canada has long been felt, and the desire for the estab-
lishment of the same has been expressed in various ways and at different times, but
to no efi'ect, because of the want of a suitable plan of organization. Our climate, the
nature of our forest trees, the want of State forests and of trained foresters, render
the adoption of the Gorman plan inexpedient, and demand a plan adapted to our
4

38

peculiar oircumstancop, and which would, at the same time, fulfil the demands which
I an reasonably bo made on such an institution.

"Sui'h a jilan was laid before the American Forestry Congress by a representa-
tion of the Ohio State Forestry Association, at St. Paul, Minn. The Forestry Con-
gress not only heartily endorsed this plan, but, upon a resolution, appointed a com-
mittee to recommend the adoption of the same by the several States of the Union,
and several Piovinces of Canada."

Much valuable experience has boon gained in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and
Dakota. The conditions of soil, the climate and phj-sical aspect of these States and
Territories rofcemble. in a remarkable degree, our great North-West, with slight advan-
tages peculiar to some of these places not enjoyed by others. Iowa and Nebraska,
lying some distance south of us, have the advantage of spring a little earlier, and
summer lingers there a little longer; but the extremes of heat and cold, sunshine
and shower, prairie plain and blutf, are very much alike. Our soil is richer, our
summer days are longer, and we ecem to be free from the cyclones and tornadoes so
frequent in the States adjoining us.

It is, however, much to the credit and enterprise of these States that they not
only experimented on the possibility of ireeplanting with native trees and shrubs,
but have for years been importing forest and fruit trees from northern Europe.
Last year Professor J. L. Budd, of Iowa State University Horticultural Chair, was
sent to Europe; and in Russia he found, in latitudes and climates similar to the great
American North-West, a state of horticulture and arboriculture that is very remark-
able, and calculated to inspire us with the hope of seeing our new acquisition, once
the "Great Lone Land," transformed not only into wheat fields, but into a land of
groves, woods and orchards.

We know that all countries situated on the west coast of Europe have their
climate much tempered and modified by the breezes of the Atlantic Ocean, even as
far north as the Faroe Isles. But the eastern European plain resembles, in a remark-
able degree, the great plains of the North American continent. Professor Budd,
speaking of it, says: " This counterpart of our western prairies and plains covers,
like a blanket, the larger part of continental Europe on the north-west, passing, with-
out any elevations to speak of, into the plains of northern Asia. The borders of this
plain are only washed at the north by the waters of the frozen ocean, and in the
west and south by the inland Baltic, Gulf of Finland, the Caspian and the Black
Seas. With the Caucasus and Carpathian Mountains to the south, the prevailing
winds prevent the moisture of the Caspian and Black Seas from benefiting the air
of even the prairies nearly adjoining them ; while the dry winds of the deserts and
sterile steppes of the south-east shrivel the foliage of the trees and plants of central
Eussia, as do our south-west winds from the dry plains of New Mexico."

The valley of the Vol«3;a has a very rich soil, a silt deposit, like that of the valley
of the Red River of the North-AVest. At Saratov, on the Volga, in latitude 62° (same
as Winnipeg) the rainfall is less and the climate more arid, while the temperature is
about the same as in similar parallels in Manitoba, and Mr. Budd adds that, from
his observation, " the summers and winters of central Russia approach ours very
closely."

Mr. Budd also adds that the sudden changes of tempeiature and air, so far as he
could judge from one summer's experience, favored the idea that the changes of
wind brought atmostpheric changes as sudden and complete as on the western prairies.
As to winter changes, he was told at Jula of a winter, twelve years ago, when a
warm eouth-east wind, taking off all the snow, was followed by a north-eastern gale
running the thermometer down to 45 degrees below zero. Mr. Budd further adds : —

"The observations of Russia and Canada record the temperature of the sheltered
cities rather than that of the open country. Educated members of the forestry staff
of Eusfcia, and intelligent nobles and proprietors, often gave records of extreme winters
far lower than what we have given."

Mr. Budd's chief aim in visiting Russia was to ascertain what could bo obtained
in hardy fruit and other trees, that might be more desirable than that found at home.
Jn the Province of Kazan, about 430 miles east of Moscow, the south part of the
Province being in the 58th parallel of north latitude, a far inferior climate in

39

extremes of summer and winter conditions, he found apple-growing a chief industry
of the peasants and some of the large landowners. At a iorestry convention at
Moscow he became acquainted with the conservator of forests of this Province, and
he kindly accompanied Mr. Budd and his friend, Mr. Charles Gibb, of Abbotsford,
Quebec, to examine the orchards of Kazan. Mr. Budd's report says : " With his
constant and zealous aid as guide and interpreter, we were able to study the
orchards of the most trying fruit-growing regions of the world very thoroughly.
The largest and best orchards on the bluffs, on the west bank of the Volga, or on the
dry prairies just back of these bluffs. We found the dwarf appearing trees loaded
with high colored and really good fruit, and we could scarce see a trace of injury by
the terrible winters of these latitudes. Our intelligent guide assured us that five
years before, on these exposed bluffs, the mercury went down to 48 degrees,
Reaumer, or 58 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. The winter before our visit the
lowest point reached was 40 degrees below. These low temperatures do not seen
verified by the records in the sheltered city of Kazan, on the east bank of the Volga;
but this is the experience in Europe in comparing the records of the great cities with
those of the exposed plains."

At Saratov there is a very large trade done in fruits, and Mr. Budd visited one
orchard that had 12,000 apple trees. It was one of many in the vicinity. The pro-
prietor, two years previously, sold over 20,000 barrels of apples. The latitude of
this orchard was 700 miles north of that of Mr. Budd's home at Amos, in Iowa.

It was a cause of great gratification to see such vegetation in these high latiiudes,
and filled the visitors with much hope for the future of our great prairies.

The success achieved on these Russian steppes affords us subject for much
thought, as well as hope for our own future in a similar direction. Many of these
plantations are fully 200 years old, and resemble islands on avast ocean; the main
object in planting them was a modification of the climate. As already stated, the
small Province of Jula has seven of them, with an aggregate of about 140,000 acres.

At Proskan is one of the best schools of horticulture and forestry to be found in
Europe. It lies north of the 50Lh parallel, and of the Carpathian Eange, and is in
the zone of the east plain, and not blessed with a rich soil. The school has an
experimental arboritum of the hardiest horticultural products of the north plain, and
many of the most desirable trees and shrubs of the east plain. The enclosure con-
tains 300 acres, and in it may be found one of the best fields for study (for our pur-
pose) to be found in the world. It is believed that the lessons to be acquired on
these great Russian steppes would be of infinite value to us on the great steppes of
our North-West, which they resemble in soil, climate and physical aspect to a
remarkable degree.

It has been already shown that the denuding of the country of its trees caused
an abnormal condition of the rivers and streams. They, in this abnormal state, are
subject to sudden rises and falls, and here the question suggests itself : Why are the
rivers of our prairie country in an abnormal state ? Would not the reforesting of a
fair proportion of the plains cause a change in the level of the waters of the Red
River, Saekatchewan, Assiniboine and other rivers, that are now subject to such
extremes of high and low water ? These streams are remarkable for the very great
difference there is between the high and low stages of the water, and it may reason-
ably be presumed that, if their banks, and the hills that shed the rainfall so suddenl}',
were clothed with trees, whose foliage would protect the earth from the burning rays
of the eun and the parching heat of the sirocco, that the mosses and the porous earth
would hold and store the water until it found its way gradually to the river, pre-
venting floods and causing a more regular water level, thus prolonging the season of
navigation, and giving the people greater facilities for marketing the fruits of their
labors, and contributing largely to the prosperity of the country. There were for-
merly on these plains streams and lakes that exist no longer, and there is good
reason to believe that, with the restoration of the forests, many of these would have
their waters again sparkling in the sunshine. That wood and water formerly
existed in many places where now there is neither, is shown by the appearance of
dried-up beaver dams remote from stream or lake. The work of disiccation is still
advancing. The Canadian Geological Report, 18'73-74, page 27, says, " The lakes and
4i

40

lake basins are abundant. Thoy appear to bo gradually diminishing in sizo, and
drj-ing up." This, he was informed, had been going on steadily for many years, and
that what had been large lakes were now pools, and all the lesser ones are already
quite dry.

In Utah, the great Salt Lake, under the influence of the groves, orchards and
other plantations set out by Mormons, which now throw a grateful shade on the
surrounding hills, has increased in magnitude, and it is said that many of the minor
lakes and some of the rivers have increased their volume of water, while streams
are not nearly so subject to extremes of level of high and low.

In an eloquent and interesting address delivered by Mr. Emile Roth, at
Cincinnati, before the American Forestry Congress, in April, 1882, the influence of
the absence of trees on rivers of the prairies was pointedly and clearly referred to.
Speaking of the Upper Miesitsippi, he said : —

" Thirty years ago steamboats drawing 6 feet of water made regular trips on
this river, up as far as St. Paul. Now, the navigation with boats of half that draught
is uncertain enough. Nearly all the tributaries of the Upper Mississippi have lost
one-half, or even more, of their former supply of water. Inundations in the spring
are now frequent, while in the summer time the depth of some of those rivers
averages hardly more inches than it could have been measured by feet thirty years
ago. Water powers which were formerly deemed to be inexhaustible have been en-
tirely abandoned, or their failing power has been replaced by steam. In the remem-
brance of ihe older settlors, the climate of Wisconsin and Minnesota was remarkably
steady, the winters were long and cold, the supply of snow ample and regular, and
late frosts in the spring were unusual. Now, the inhabitants complain of abrupt
changes of temperature in all seasons of the year, and of the irregularity of the snow-
fall. The Legislature of Wisconsin has already paid attention to these alarming
facts, and has taken the preservation of existing forests and the establi.^hment of
artifical ones into earnest consideration. By a resolution recently passed, it asks of
the National Government the transfer, for that purpose, of all unsold public lands in
the State, which are now despoiled of their lumber by thievish lumbermen."

Mr. Roth refers to many instances of the injurious results of denuding the
country of its trees. He says, speaking of Arizona : " The hills and slopes were once
stocked with timber, which was wasted by the inhabitants, whereafter the same
deterioration of the country gradually took place which we nolica in Palestine,
Greece and Sicily ; and, finally, the people had to migrate, to avoid starvation."

NECESSITY FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION.

But enough of the warning examples of history.

It is not too late for repairing much of the damage that has been done by the
destruction of our forests. A regulation for the use of the timber may be effected
without any injury to the legitimate lumber trade, and the re-planting as well as the
establishment of artificial forests may undoubtedly be made profitable for private as
well as for public enterprise. If it is found remunerative to acclimatize American
trees in Germany and France, where land is much higher in price than here, why
should it not be remunerative to cultivate them in those parts of America in which
lumber is scarce and precious? They grow quicker here, and to greater perfection
than elsewhere. Nature has lavishly provided this country with an uncommonly
large number of the valued species of trees. There are not more than thirty five
species and distinct varieties of trees in France that attain to a height of 30 feet;
not more than sixty-five in Germany; but over one hundred and fifty in the upper
part of the Mississippi valley alone. The renowned botanist and explorer. Sir J. D.
Hooker, was much surprised and charmed with the remarkable extent of the variety
as well as the great size of the trees in the valley of the Upper Mississippi, and
could he again revisit this beautiful country he would bo disgusted to see hove the
people, in their greed and selfishness, had destroyed what a benign Pi-ovidonce had
so lavishly bestowed.

It is much to be regretted that the forests of Manitoba and the North-West are
being slashed and wasted with a recklessness similar to that which charactcrizei
the destruction of the woods of the old Provinces.

41

These woodlauds, in view of tho large population the prairies are capable of
supporting, should have been kept as permanent reserves, to supply the wants of the
settlers, permitting only the mature trees to be cut down. It is painful now to see
millions of fine young trees being cut down, and their branches left to litter the
ground, acting as trains to conduct the prairie fires to destroy those that are still too
young for the axe. It is only under a more provident system, when our forests will
be cared for with due regard to the future, as well as our present wants, that such
waste as is now going on can be checked.

All our present forest land should be carefully surveyed, laid out in districts and
chartered, and the character and profile of the land described. Timber experts, or
competent wood-rangers, should be sent to examine, appraise ani report on their
value and availability; and then the mature timber only should be sold.

CONCLUSION.

In this preliminary report there is neither time nor space to go much into detail.
The disasters which the destruction of the forests have caused in ancient, mediaeval
and modern times have been referred to, and the probable evils that might befall
our country under like circumstances, have been pointed out. The measures which
have been and are being taken by all progressive civilized nations to remedy the
evils caused by former waste and to provide for fulure supplies have been shown.
The improved systems of forestal education in the leading schools of Europe have
been brought under review ; and the repults achieved by those States and countries
whose climate and geographical condition most closely resembles ours have been
examined. Enough has been shown to make it evident that it is the duty of our
Government to adopt measures, immediately, to arrest further destruction of our
remaining forests (except under some very improved system of supervision), and to
replant, where practicable, the high lands which were formerly covered with forest
trees, and also to devise or adopt some plan or system of forest plantations for the
great stepped region of the North-West. American trees have been acclimitized in
Europe, and it is found to be a lucrative enterprise to grow them. It is quite probable
Ihat we may find some species of trees in northern Europe that would be better
adapted to our prairie country than any that we have. Of the great necessity of
ti ees on plains there is no doubt. Of the probable success of growing trees there, I
believe there is none. The late Leonard B. Hodges, Chief Forester of the Northern
Pacific Eaiiway, says, in speaking of the vicissitudes of climate to which Minnesota,
Dakota, Manitoba, and the North- West Territories are exposed : —

" Forestry is the prime factor, the central figure, in the whole business. 1 have
neither time nor patience to even attempt to answer the puerile arguments and the
unfounded assertions that trees won't grow on the western prairies. Life it too
short to fool any portion of it away in that direction. Facts, not theories, claim our
attention. The fact that, within the last ton years, hundreds of groves, containing
millions of healthy, vigorous young trees, are now growing far out in the treeless
region where science had preordained and doomed the work an impossibility, must be
acknowledged. The fact that young groves of forest trees are now being grown on
the line of the Northern Pacific Railway, away out and beyond the 150th Meridian,
has also got to be admitted, science and its votaries to the contrary notwithstanding."

The United States Government and Governments of many of the individual
States did much in the way of legislation to induce farmers to go into tree-growing
as a business, as well as an aid towards homo comfort and adornment, but their
efforts have not been crowned with success. Many of the statutes passed, after
revisions and modifications, were repealed. In 1873-74 an Act called the Tree
Culture Act was passed by the United States Congress. Its provisions were evaded
by the land grabbers, and it was found not to work well. It was amended in 1876,
and again in 1877, but notwithstanding tho carefulness of the provisions, it was found
open to abuse. Unscrupulous speculators managed, under false pretexts, to lay
claim to the most desirable locations, and held them, without making the necessary
improvements. They, howevei', often succeeded in making large sums of money by
selling to actual eottlers, who wished to obtain the lots as homes.

42

Last year tho United Slalos Govornraont sent a commissioner to report on the
working of tho law, and his investigation led him to report in favor of its total
repeal, as it had utterl}' failed to accomplish the object for which it was introduced.

The States of Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska had each passed laws giving premiums
for tree-planting on the prairies, but, after a few years' experience, they were repealed,
or very materially modi 5ed. It was found that what was intended to encourage
tree-planting had, in most casop, led to fraudulent claims for premiums.

In any sj'stem that may bo adopted by Canada, special care should be given to
see that provision is made for tho fullest enforcement of the laws. By this means
only can we expect to see our remaining forests protected from utter destruction, or
new ones produced, and our prairie country beautified with groves and plantations,
and thus made attractive to the millions of people who aro likely to make their
homos on these fertile plains.

Almost all tho civilized nations of the world long ago realized the danger that
their improvidence and carelessness had caused, and have taken tho most thorough
and systematic steps towards tho protection and reproduction of their forests, and in
this have shown a striking contrast to the wastefulness and neglect that have char-
acterized the conduct of those who have control of tho great forests of America.
The noble work of reboisement in France, an account of which is given by tho
Kov. J. Crorabie Brown, is well worthy of our admiration and emulation. There wo
can learn how mountain torrents have been chained, extensive valleys have been
rescued from destruction, restored to fertility and secured against future inundations ;
millions of acres of barren wastes and dunes of drifting sand have been converted
into luxuriant and lucrative forest domains ; and how largo districts that had been
abandoned as uninhabitable were transformed, by the restoration of forests, so as to
become desirable as the homes of large agricultural communities.

In Krussia, much of tho land on the bleak and inhospitable steppes has, by the
planting of forests, been reclaimed and made capable of supporting, in comfort, a
numerous and industrious peasantry.

If we would keep up with tho march of progress and civilization of our time, if
we would do our duty to the noble heritage with which God has endowed us, we
must no longer defer a work which is of such paramount importance, and so abso-
lutely essential to our prosperity as a people. The examples set us by Franco,
Germany and Eussia are not to bo overlooked.

The Government of the Dominion should, without loss of tims, appoint a Forest
Commission, to co-operate with a similar Commission from every Pi-ovinco in the
Dominion, to deal with this all-important question of the protection of our old forests
and the production of new forests.

Jn closing this preliminary report, I can think of no more appropriate words
than a quotation from a very able lecture on the subject of forest preservation,
delivered by Professor E. K. Price, before the American Philosophical Society, of
Philadelphia, in 1877. After elaborately picturing tho desolation that overspread
those countries that have boon denuded of their trees, he finished his discourse in the
following words :

" The facts are abundant that to part with tho trees is to lose the springs they
protected, tho running streams the springs supply, and the volume of the broad river.
These lost, all the charm of the landscape has fled, and this source of man's refine-
ment and civilization has left tho world. With tho loss of rains and springs, tho fruit-
fulness of the world passes away. Grass fails for flock and herd, and the bread of
life is no longer sure for man, and only because man has betrayed his trust."

J. H. M.

43

APPENDIX.

ENACTMENTS TO ENCOURAGE TREE PLANTING AND THE PROTEC-
TION OF FORESTS.

U. S. Timber Culture Act op 1818.

Au Act to Amend an Act to Amend an Act intituled : " An Act to Encourage the
Growth of Timber in the Western Prairies."

[Approved June, 18'78.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States
of America, in Congress assembled, that the Act intituled: "An Act to Amend an
Act to Amend an Act to Encourage the Growth of Timber on the Western Prairies,"
approved March 13th, 1874, be and the same is hereby amended, so as to read as
follows : —

Section 1. That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at
the ago of 21 years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his
declaration of his intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of
the United States to become such, who shall plant, protect, and keep in a healthy
condition, for eight years, ten acres of timber on any quarter-section of any of the
public lands of the United States, or five acres on any legal sub-division of eighty
acres, or two and one-half acres on any legal sub-division of forty acrcR, or less, shall
be entitled to a patent for the whole of such quarter-section, or of such legal sub-
division of eighty or forty, or fractional sub-division of less than forty acres, or as the
case may be, at the expiration of said eight years, on making proof of such fact by not
less than two credible witnesses, and a full compliance of the further conditions pro-
vided in section two : Provided further, that not more than one-quarter section of
any section shall be thus granted, and that no person shall make more than one
entry under the provisions of this Act.

Section 2. That the person applying for the benefits of this Act shall, upon
application to the Registrar of the land district in which ho or she is about to make
such entry, make affidavit, before the Registrar, or the Receiver, or the Clerk of some
Court of Record, or officer authorized to administer oaths in the district where the

land is situated, which affidavit shall be as follows, to wit : — I, , having

filed my application, number , for an entry under the provisions of an Act,

entitled an Act, &c., &c. (as above), I do solemnly swear that I am the head of a
family (or over 21 years of age) and a citizen of the United States (or have
declared my intentions to become such) ; that the section of land specified
in my said application is composed exclusively of prairie lands, or other
lands devoid of timber; that this filing and entry is made for the
cultivation of timber, and for my own exclusive use and benefit; that I have
made the said application in good faith, and not for the purpose of speculation, or
directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomso-
ever; that I intend to hold and cultivate the land, and to fully comply with the
provisions of this Act; and that I have not heretofore made an entry under this Act,
or the Acts of which this is amending. And upon filing said affidavit with said
Registrar and said Receiver, and on payment of ten dollars, if the said tract applied
for is more than eighty acres, and five dollars if it is eighty acres or less, he or she
may thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified ; and the party
making an entry of a quarter- section under the provisions of this Act shall bo
required to break or plough five acres covered, or thereby, the first year ; five acres
the second year, and to cultivate, to crop, or otherwise, the five acres broken or
ploughed the first year ; the third year he or she shall cultivate, to crop or otherwise,
the five acres broken the second year, and to plant in timber seeds or cuttings the five

44

acres fii>t Lrokcn or ploughoJ, or to cultivate and put in crop or otherwise the
remaining five acres; and the fourth year to plant in timber seeds or cuttings the
remaining five acres. All entries of less quantity than one quarter-section shall be
ploughed, planted, cultivated to trees, iree-seeds or cuttings, in the same manner and
in the same proportion as hereinbefore provided for a quarter-section. Provided,
however, that in cape such trees, seeds or cuttings shall be destroyed by- grass-
hoppers or by extreme and unusual drought for any year or time of year, the time
for planting such trees, seeds or cuttings shall be extended one year for every such
year they are so destroyed. Provided further, that the person making such entry,
before ho or she shall be entitled to such extontion of time, file with the Kegistrar
and the Eeceivor of the proper land office an affidavit, corroborated by two witnesses,
setting forth the destruction of such trees, and that in consequence of such destruc-
tion he or she is compelled to a-k for an extension of time, in accordance with the
permission of this Act. And provided further, that no final certificate shall be given
or patent issued for the land so entered until the expiration of eight years from the
date of such entry; and if at the expiration of such time, or at any time within five
years thereafter, the person making such entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her
lawful representatives, shall prove by two credible witnesses that he or she or they
have planted and, for not less than eight years, have cultivated and protected such
quantity and character of trees as aforesaid, that not less than twenty-seven hundred
trees were planted on each acre, and that at the time of making such proof there
shall be then growing at least six hundred and seventy five living and thriving trees
to each acre, thoy shall receive a patent for such tract of land.

Section 3. That if at any time after the filing of this affidavit, and prior to the
issuing of the patent for said land, the claimant shall fail to comply with any of tha
requirements of this Act, then, and in that event, such land shall be subject to entry
under the homestead laws, or by some other person, under the provisions of this
Act : Provided that^the party making claim to said land, either as a homestead settler
or under this Act, shall give notice to the original claimant, as shall be prescribed by
the rules established by the commission of the general land office ; and the rights of
the parties shall be determined as in other contested cases.

Section 4. That no land acquired under the provisions of this Act shall, in any
event, become liable to the satisfaction of any debts contracted prior to the issuing of
the final certificate therefor.

Section 5. That the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby required to
prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with ihis Act, as shall be
necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect, and that the I^egistrars and
Receivers of the several land offices shall each be entitled to receive two dollars at the
time of entry, and the like sum when the claim is finally established and the final
certificate issued.

Section 6. That the fifth section of an Act intituled : " An Act in addition to an
Act to Punish Crimes against the United States and for other purposes," approved
3rd March, 1857, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations and affiJavits required or
authorized by this Act.

Section 7- That parties who have already made entries under the Act approved
13th March, 1874, shall be permitted to complete the f-arae under the provision* of
this Act.

Section 8. All Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with this Act are hereby
repealed.

ENCOUEAGEMENT OF TREE-PL A.NTING.

In 1874 the State Legislature of Illinois passed an Act empowering the Boaids
of Supervisors of Counties to offer a premium of $10 per annum, for three years, for
each acre of land planted in trees, the trees not to be more than 10 feet apart.

In 18GS Iowa passed an Act for the encouragement of tree culture. It enacted :
" That there shall be exempt from taxation (of) the real and personal property of
each tax payer who shall, within the State of Iowa, plant and suitably cultivate one
or more acres of forest trees for timber, the sum of $100 for ten years, for each acre

45

so planted and cultivated : Pi-ovided, that the trees on the said land shall bo kept in
a healthy and growing condition."

In 1872 this Act wag amended so as to extend the premium to tree-planting on
highways.

Kansas, in 1868, passed an Act which gave $2 per acre for the planting and
proper care of each acre so planted, for ten years. A like bounty was also offered for
each half-mile of trees, not more than one rod apart, planted along any public
highway.

Maine, in 18'72, enacted a law by wh-'ch each acre of land, properly planted and
cultivated, would be exempt. from taxes for twenty years.

Minnesota, in 1873, passed an Act which gave premiums similar to those given
by Kansas.

"Wisconsin, by law passed in 1868, enacts that every possessor of five or more
acres of land, who shall reserve one-fifth thereof, either from natural growth, or
successfully grown by planting, shall be exempt from taxation until the trees shall
reach a height of 12 feet. Whenever the trees shall have attained a height of 12 feet
he shall be entitled to S2 per acre for each acre so planted or grown as a tree-belt,
which bounty shall be allowed as hereinafter provided ; and the certificate shall bo
received by the collector of taxes assessed on the entire, of which the tree-belt forms
a part, as so much cash.

Tree-belts eo planted shall be on the west or south side of each tract of land,
and shall not be less than 30 feet wide, but no bolt shall exceed more than one-fifth of
the entire tract of land on which the same is planted ; provided, that, if the east and
north sides of any tracts of land, or either of them, be bounded by a public highway
or street, then a tree belt one rod wide, may be planted next to said highway or
street, and the same shall be entitled to all the benefits of this Act, although such
last-mentioned tree-belt shall, with the last-mentioned tree bolts on the west and
south sides, exceed one-fifth part of the whole of the said tract of land.

The tree belts to be entitled to the benefits of this Act, for each five acres of
land, must be 30 feet ; for each ten acres of land, 60 feet wide, and for 40 acres 100
feet wide, and must be on two sides of each square tract of land, and all tree-belts
owned by the same landowner must be planted not to exceed one quarter of a mile
apart, or on the west and south sides of every 40 square acres of land ; and the tree-
belts may be divided and planted on any other lines within 40 square acres, by
permission of the assessor.

It is also provided for in this Act that if by neglect, pasturing, or thinning out,
or otherwise, the owner shall lose the benefits of this Act, until it shall bo again
accepted and certified to by the assessor, whose duty it is to make a personal exami-
nation annually of the condition of these plantations. Should the assessor deem them
neglected, as above, the land shall be assessed like the remainder.

Almost all the States and Territories have laws for the protection of shade trees,
and for proraotinsr the culture of trees in public highways.

In 1883 the Province of Ontario passed an Act to encourage the growth of shade
trees on highways, and there was also a provision about growing trees on boundaries
between adjoining farms, but the law does not seem to be popular, as I am not aware
of its having been adopted by any municipality. It would hardly be advisable, with
our moist atmosphere and clayey soil, to plant sh-ide trees on our country roads.
Moreover, there is a section in the Ontario Municipal Act (524) which auihorizes
municipal councils to cut down trees on private properly when they cause the roads
to keep muddy by too much shade.

Shrubs or fruit trees would conduce much to beautify our roads, and would not
shut them out from the sunlight, so necessary to dry them after heavy rains.

LAWS FOR PEOTECTION AGAINST FJRES.

In the statutes of Dakota it is provided, by an Act passed in 1869, to prevent
the firing of woods, marshes and pi-airies : —

Section 1. If any person or persons shall wilfully set on fire, or cause to be set
on fire, any wjodn, marshes of prairies, with intention to damage or injure the pro-

46

porty of another person, such person or persons so offending hhall, upon conviction
thereof, bo fined in a sum of not more than $500 or less than $50, and imprisoned in
the county gaol cot more than 6 months nor less than 30 days, or both, at the discre-
tion of the court, and shall be liable for all damages done by such fire.

Section 2. lif any person or persons shall negligently or carelessly set on fire,
or cause to be set on fire, any woods, marshes or prairies, the person or persons so
offending shall be fined in a sum of not more than $100, nor less than $10, upon con-
viction thereof, and shall bo liable to the injured parties for any damage occasioned
by any fire sot or caused, as aforesaid, to be recovered by civil actions.

Section 3. That any person or persons setting on fire, or causing to be set on
fire, any woods, marshes, prairies or lands owned or occupied by him, or her, or
themselves, for the purpose of securing his, her or their own property from damage
or destruction by prairie fire, shall be held liable for all damage occasioned thereby:
Provided, that nothing in this Act shall bo so construed as to prevent any person or
persons from firing against fire when his, her or their own property is in imminent
dar ger of damage by the near approach of prairie fires.

Section 4. It shall be lawful for any person or persons to set on fire, or cause
to be set on fire, any marshes or prairies owned or occupied by him, her or
themselves, during the months of March, April and May : Provided, that the person
or persons desiring to set such fire shall give at least twenty-four hours' notice to all
persons occupying lands within one mile of the place where such fire is to bo set.

Section 5. No property, real or personal, shall be exempt from seizure and sales
on execution issued to satisfy any judgment obtained under the provisions of this Act.

Section 6. All Acts and parts of Acts in conflict with the provisions of this Act
are hereby repealed.

Illinois has laws more exacting in their provisions than those of Dakota. The
third section holds servants, unable to pay fine, liable to be publicly wliipped, to the
extent of 39 lashes. There is also an Act relating to fires caused by locomotives. It
reads : —

Section 1. That in an action against any person or incorporated company for
tho recovery of damages on account of any injury to any property, whether real or
personal, occasioned by fire communicated by any locomotive engine while upon or
passing along any railroad in the State, the fact that such fire was so communicated
shall bo taken as fall prima facie evidence to charge with negligence the corporation
or person or persons who shall, at the time of such injury by fire, be in use and
occupation of such railroad, either as owners, lessees, or mortgagees, and also those
who shall at such time have the care and management of such engine, and it shall
iiot, in any case, be considered as negligence on the part of tho owner or occupant of
the property injured that *he had used the same in the manner, or permitted the
same to bo used or remain in the condition it had been used or remained, had no
railroad passed through or near tho property so injured, except in cases of injury to
personal property, which shall be at the time upon the property occupied by such
railroad. This Act shall not apply to injuries already committed.

The laws of Indiana, in regard to sotting fires to woods, prairies or marshes,
much resembles those of Illinois.

In Iowa, an Act passed in 1862, and which has since been incorporated in tho
code, provides: "That if any person set fire to, or burn, or cause to be burned, any
prairie or timber land, allowing such fire to escape from his control, between tho
first day in September, in any year, and the first day of May following, he shall bo
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall bo imprisoned in
the county gaol not more than thirty days, or puniribed by fine, not exceeding one
hundred dollars."

This Act was modified in 1873, so as to hold any person who wilfully sets fire to
any field, prairie or timber, to be liable to a fine of §500, or to be imprisoned in tho
county gaol for not more than one year.

Michigan has suffered more from fires than any State in the Union. In 1846
it was enacted that if any person should wilfully or negligently set fire to, or cause
to bo fired, any woods, prairie or other grounds not his own property, or should
wilfully or negligently permit fire, kindled by himself or by his order or permission.

4t

to pass from his own lands to the injury of other persons, he should, on conviction,
be found guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by
imprisonment in the county gaol not over one year, or both, at the discretion of the
court.

Section 2. Wherever the woods or prairies in any township shall be on fire so
as to endanger property, it shall be the duty of the justices of the peace, the super-
visor and the commissioner of highways of such township, and each of them, to order
such or so many of the inhabitants of such township, liable to work on the highways,
acd residing in the vicinity of the place where the fire shall be, as they shall severally
deem necessary, to repair to the place where such fire shall prevail, and there to
assist in extinguishing the same, or in stopping its progress.

Section 3. If any person shall refuse, or wilfully neglect to comply with such
order, he shall forfeit a sum of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars.

The General Eailroad Act of Michigan contains the following wise provisions. It
was approved Ist May, 1873 :

Article 4, section 16. Any railroad company building, owning, or operating any
railroad in this State shall be liable for all loss or damage to properly by fire origin-
ating from such railroad, either from engines passing over such road, fires set by tho
company'*} employes by orders of officers of said road, or otherwise originating in tho
construction or operating of such railroad: Provided, that such company shall not
be held so liable if it prove to the satisfaction of the court or jury that such fire
originated from fire by eugines where machinery, smoke stack, or fire-boxes, were in
good order and properly managed, or fires originated in building, operating, or repair-
ing such railroad, and that all reasonable precautions had been taken to prevent their
origin, and that proper efforts had been made to extinguish the same, in case of their
extending beyond the limits of such railroad, when the existence of such fire is com-
municated to any of the officers of such company.

Maine, like Michigan, has been a great sufferer fi*om forest fires, and
experience has taught her the necessity of careful and vigilant legislation.

An Act to protect forest and timber lands from fire, and to punish the careless
and unlawful kindling of fires, was passed in 1855 : —

Section 1. No person shall kindle a fire on land not his own, without the con-
sent of the owner, under a penalty of ten dollars and costs, and to stand committed
till the fine and costs are paid.

Section 2. If any person shall kindle a fire in any field, pasture, or enclosure,
forest or timber land, not his own, without the consent of the owner, and the same
shall spread and do damage to any buildings, fences, crops, cordwood, bark, or any
other personal property, or to any wood or timber land, he shall, on conviction, be
punished by a fine of not less than ten or more than five hundred dollars and costs,
according to the aggravation of the offence, and shall stand committed till the fine
and costs are paid.

Section 3. If any person shall maliciously, -viith intent to injure any other
person, by himself or any other person, kindle a fire on his own land, or on the land of
another person, and by means of such fire the buildings, fences, crop-t, or oiher per-
sonal property, or woods or timber lands, of any other person shall be destroyed or
injured, he shall, on conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than twenty dollars
nor more than one thousand, or by imprisonment in the common gaol or house of
correction not less than three months nor more than twelve months, or in th^ State
prison not less than one or more than three years, according to the aggravation of
the offence.

Section 4. If any person shall, for any lawful purpose, kindle a fire on his own
land, he shall do it at such time and in such manner, and shall take such care of it, to
prevent it from spreading and doing damage to other persons' property, as a prudent
and careful man would do, and if he fail so to do, he shall be liable in an action on
the case to any person suffering damage thereby, to the full amount of such damage.

Section 5. Any person who shall enter upon the lands of another person, tor tho
purpose of hunting or fishing, and shall, by use of fire arms or other means, kindle
any fire thereon, shall be liable to the pen iltes of the first, second, or third sections
of this Act, as the case may be.

48

Section C. Persons engaj^cd in driving lumber upon any waters or streams, may
kindle fires when necessary for the purpose in which they arc engaged, but shall bo
bound to use the utmost exertion to prevent the same from spreading and doing
damage; and if they fail so to do, they shall bo subject to all the liabilities and
penalties of this Ai'.t, in the same manner as if the privileges granted by this section
had not been allowed.

Section 7. The common right to an action for damages done by fires is not
taken away or diminished by this Act, but it may be pursued, notwithstanding the
fines and penalties set forth in the first, second and third sections of this Act ; but
any person availing himself of the provisions of the fourth section shall be barred in
his action at common law for the damages so sued for. And no action shall bo
brought at common law for kindling fires in the manner prescribed in the sixth
section, but if an 5^ such fire shall spread and do damage, tho person who kindled the
same, and any person present and concerned in driving such lumber, by whoso act
or neglect such fire is suffered to spread and do damage, shall be liable in an action
on tho case for the amount of damage thereby sustained.

Section 8. "When a building or other property is injured by fire communicated
by a locomotive engine, the corporation using it is responsible for such injury, and it
has an insurable interest in all property along the route for which it is responsible,
and may procure insuranco thereon.

MINNESOTA STATUTES

1. That if any person or persons shall willingly and intentionally, or negligently
and carelessly, set on fire, or cause to be set on fire, any wood, prairie, or other
ground whatsoever, in any part of this State, every person so offending shall forfeit
and pay not loss than five dollars nor more than one hundred ; and, in default of pay-
ment of said fine, shall be committed to the county gaol for a term of not less than
thirty days nor more than three months : Provided, that this section shall not extend
to any person who shall set on fire, or cause to be set on fire, any woods or prairie
on his or her own farm or enclosure, for the necessary protection thereof from
accident b}' fire, by giving to his own neighbors one day's notice of such intention :
Provided further, that tho neighbors come together and participate in the burning
of any woods, prairies or grounds, the notice in this section shall not be necessary or
given : Provided also, that this section shall not be construed to take away any civil
rtmedy which any person may be entitled to for any injury that may bo done or
received in consequence of such firing.

2. The penalties provided in the foregoing section shall be recovered by action
of debt before any justice of the peace in the county where such offence shall have
been committed, upon the complaint of any legal voter residing within the county
where such offence has been committed.

3. It shall be the duty of any person who shall have any knowledge of such
offence, or of any legal voter of the county where such offence has been committed,
to prosecute such offender in the name of the State of Minnesota, and all fines and
penalties so received shall be applied to tho rise and support of the public schools in
the lownsbip in which such offence shall have been sommitted.

4. All Acts and parts of Acts inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are
hereby repoijled.

6. This Act shall take effect after its passage.

The statutes of Minnesota empower county commissioners to appoint persons to
burn the grass (in every county invaded by grasshoppers) within their respective
counties ; but in no case before tho fifteenth of May in each year.

In Missouri the penalty for wilfully setting on fire woods, prairies, or marshes,
is from $100 to $50U ; half the fine goes to tho person who gives the information.

In Nebraska the Revised Statutes contain tho following provision in reference
to fires : —

Section 160. If any perfon or persons shall hereafter, at any time, wilfully acd
intentionally, or negligently and carelessly, set on firo, or cause to be sot on fire, any
woods or other grounds whatsoever, in tho inhabited parts of this territory, every

49

person so offending shall, on conviction, ba liable to a penalty of not less than five
nor more than one hundred dollars: Provided, that this section shall not extend to
any person who shall set on fire any woods or prairies adjoining his or her farm,
plantation or enclosure, for the necessary preservation thereof from accident by fire,
between the first day of March and the last day of November, by giving to his or
her neighbors two days' notice of such intention : Provided also, that this section
shall not be construed to take away any civil remedy which any person may be
entitled to for any injury which may have been done or received in consequence of
such firing.

New Hampshire, by an Act passed in 1862, provides that any person kindling
fire on land not his own shall be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars ; and
if such fire spreads and does damage to the property of others, he shall be punished
by a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, or by
imprisonment for not less than one month nor more than three years, according to
the aggravation of the circumstances.

The general Jaws of the State provide as follows in relation to damage done by
railroads : —

Section 8. The proprietors of every railroad shall be liable for all damage which
shall accrue to any person or property by fire or steam from any locomotive or other
engine on such road.

Section 9. Such proprietors shall have an insurable interest on all property
situate on the line of such road exposed to such damage, and may effect insurance
thereon for their own benefit.

Section 10. Any insurance effected by the owners of such property thereon, so
far insure to the benefit of the proprietors of such railroad that in case of loss such
proprietors shall be entitled to a deduction from the damages of the amount received
thereon, except the premium and expense of recovery of the same.

New Jersey's code resembles that of Michigan, in part, having reference to fires.
The Act has some good measures for the government of railroad companies : —

Section 15. It shall be the duty of every railroad company in this State, and of
every company or person operating or using any railroad in this State with a
locomotive engine or engines, to provide such engine with a screen or screens, or
cover or covers, on the smoka -stack or smoke-pipe of such engine, so as to prevent,
as much as practicable, the escape of fire from the smoke-stacks of such engines.

Section 16. In any action brought for the recovery of damages for any injury
done to the property of any person or corporation by fire communicated by a
locomotive engine of any person or railroad corporation, in violation of the preceding
section of this Act, proof that the injury was so done shall be prima facie evidence of
such violation, subject, nevertheless, to be rebutted by evidence of the taking and
using all practicable means to prevent such communication of fire as by said section
required.

Section 17. If any company or person shall refuse or neglect to comply with
cither of the foregoing provisions of this Act for preventing the communication of
fire from locomotives, they shall forfeit, lor every such refusal or neglect, the sum of
one hundred dollars, to any person who may sue for the same, to be recovered with
costs in an action for debt in any court having cognizance thereof, one-half of the
sum received to go to the person suing and one-half to the State, for the public school
fund.

Pennsylvania has an eflScient Act, passed in 1871, to protect timber lands from
fire : —

Whereas it is important to the people of the State that timber lands should be
protected from fire, which, owing to malicious conduct and carelessness ot individuals,
Ih causing great havoc in the young growing timber, especially upon our mountains;
Therefore, —

Be it enacted, &c., that it shall be the duty of the commissioners of the several
counties of this commonwealth to appoint persons under oath, whose dut}^ it shall bo
to ferret out and bring to punishment all persons who, either wilfully or otherwise,
cause the burning of timber lands, and to take meas'iros to have such fires

50

extinguibhod, where it can be done, the expenses thereof to be paid out of the county
treasury, the unexhausted land tax to bo first applied for such expenses.

All the other States and Territories have laws for tho prevention of fires, but
much resembling those noticed.

PEOVINCE OF QUEBEC.

An Act respecting Clearing Lands and the Protection of Forests against Fires.

\_As8entedto 2ith December, 1870.

Whereas it is expedient to determine the periods of the year during which fires
may be lighted in forests, for the purpose of clearing lands; and whereas it is
further necessary to protect forests against fires : Her Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Legislature of Quebec, enacts as follows : —

1. No person shall at any time set fire to, or cause to burn, any trees, shrubs
or other plants growing or standing in any forest.

2. No person shall set fire to, or cause to burn, any pile of wood, branches or
brushwood or any tree, shrub, or other plant, which shall be situate or felled in the
foiest, or at a distance of less than a mile, or any turf, peat, stumps, fallen trees or
other timber, at any period of the year, for any cause or pretext whatsoever, except
for the purpose of clearing lands, and in such latter case only between the first day
of September and the first day of July.

3. Notwithstanding the preceding provisions, it shall be lawful to make a fire
in or near the forests to obtain warmth, and for cooking or any other necessary
objects, or for all industrial purposes, such as the manufacture of tar, turpentine,
charcoal, or the making of ashes for the manufacture of pot or pearl ash, provided
that the obligations ana precautions imposed by the following sections are observed :

4. Every person who shall, between the fifteenth day of May and the fifteenth
day of October, make a fire in the forest, or at a distance of less than half a mile
therefrom, for the purposes mentioned in preceding sections, must —

1. Select the locality in the neighborhood in which there is the smallest quan-
tity of vegetable matter, dead wood, branches, brushwood, dry leaves or resinous
trees.

2. Clear the place in which he is about to light his fire, by removing all
vegetable matter, dead trees, branches, brushwood and dry leaves from the soil,
within a radius of twenty-five feet, as regards fires made fur the necessities of an}''
industry, as mentioned in section thtee, and a radius of four feet as regards fires
made for other necessary objects mentioned in said section.

3. Totally extinguish the fire before quitting the place.

5 Any percon who shall throw or drop on the ground, in any place whatsoever,
whether in the forests, the open fields or other place, any burning match, ashes of a
pipe, cigar or part of a cigar, or any other burning substance, or who shall discharge
any fire-arm, bhall be bound, under the pains and penalties of this Act, for his neg-
lect to completely extinguish before leaving the spot, the fire of such match, the
ashes of a pipe, C'gar or part of a cigar, or wadding of such fire-arm.

6. Any person contravening any of the provisions of this Act shall be liable,
upon conviction before any justice of the peace, to a penalty not exceeding fifty
dollars, and in default of payment of said penalty and costs of suit, with or without
delay, to be imprisoned in the common gaol of the district wherein he shall be con-
victed, for a period not exceeding three calendar months, unless the said penalty and
costs of suit, together with the costs of apprehension and conveyance of the said
offender to the said common gaol be sooner paid, or be imprisoned in the said
common gaol not exceeding three calendar months; or to be condemned for each
such offence to the said penalty, and further, to the imprisonment, herebeforo men-
tioned, with costs of suit in all cases.

7. Any person of full age may prosecute for any contravention of this Act, and
one-half of the penalty, in case of conviction, shall belong to the prosecutor, and the

61

other half to the Government of this Province, to form part of the consolidated
revenue of the same.

8. Every puit for contravention of this Act shall be summoned within the three
calendar months immediately following such contravention, and not afterwards.

9. Any justice of the peace who shall view any contravention of this Act, may
impose the penalty therefor without other proof; and for the purpose of this Act, all
agents for the sale of Crown lands, all sworn surveyors, all employes of the
Department of Crown Lands, and all wood rangers employed by the Department of
Crown Lards, shall be ex o^cvo justices of the peace.

10. The Act thirty-three Victoria is hereby repealed.

PEOYINCE OF ONTARIO.

An Act to preserve the Forests from destruction by Fire.

\_Passed March, 1878.

Whereas large quantities of valuable timber are annually destroyed by fires,
which are, in many instances, the result of negligence and carelessness, it is therefore
necessary to provide stringent regulations for the prevention of such fires:

Therefore Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative
Assembly of Ontario, enacts as follows : —

1. The Lieutenant-Governor may, by proclamation to be made by him, from
time to time, issued by and with the advice of the Executive Council, declare any
portion or part of the Province of Ontario to be a Fire District.

2. Every proclamation under this Act shall be published in the Ontario Gazette,
and such portion or part of the Province as is mentioned and declared to be a Fire
District, in and by the said proclamation, shall, from and after the said proclamation,
become a Fire Di&trict within the meaning and for the purposes of this Act.

3. Every such portion or part of the Province mentioned in such proclamation
shall cease to be a fire district upon the revocation by the Lieutenant-Governor in
Council of the proclamation by which it was enacted.

4. It shall not be lawful for any person to set out, or cause to be set out, or
started, any fire within or near the woods, within any Fire District, between the first
day of April and the first day of November in any year, except for the purpose of
clearing land, cooking, obtaining warmth, or for some industrial purpose ; and in
case of starting fires for any of the above purposes, the obligations and precautions
imposed by the following sections shall be observed :

5. Every person who shall, between the first day of April and the first day of
November, make or start a fire for the purpose of clearing land, shall exercise and
observe every reasonable care and precaution in making and starting of such fire, and
in the management and care of the same after it has been made and started, in order
to prevent such fire from spreading and burning up the timber and forests surround-
ing the place where it has been so made and started.

6. Every person who shall, between the first day of May and the first day of
November, make or start, within such Fire District, a fire in the forest, or at a distance
of less than half a mile therefrom, or upon any island, for cooking, obtaining warmth,
or any industrial purpose, shall :

(1.) Select a locality in the neighborhood in which there is the smallest quantity
of vegetable matter, dead wood, branches, brushwood, dry leaves or resinous trees.

(2.) Clear the place in which he is about to light the fire, by removing all vege-
table matter, deadwood, branches, brushwood and dry leaves from the soil, within a
radius of ten feet from the fire .

(3.) Exercise and observe every reasonable precaution to prevent such fire from
spreading, and extinguish the same before quitting the place.

7. Any person who shall throw or drop any burning match, ashes of a pipe,
lighted cigar, or any other burning substance, or who shall discharge any fire arm
within such Fire District, shall be subject to the pains and penalties imposed by this
Act if he neglects completely to extinguish, before leaving the spot, the fire ot such
match, ashes of a pipe, cigar, wadding of the fire-arm, or other burning substance.

52

8. Every person in charfjo of any drive of limbor, survey or exploring partj',
or of any other party requiring camp fires for cooking or other purposes, within
such Fire District, shall provide himself with a copy of this Act, and shall call his
men together and cause said Act to be read in their hearing and explained to them,
at least once in each week during the continuance of such work or service.

9. All locomotive engines used on any railway which passes through saeh Fiio
District, or any part of it, shall, by the company usKing the same, bo provided with
and have in use all the most approved and etficient moans u=ed to prevent the escape
of fire from the furnace or ash pan of such engine, and that the smoke stack of such
locomotive engine so used shall be provided with a bonnet or screen of iron or steel
wire netting, the size of wire to be used in making the netting to be not less than
number rineteen of the Birmingham wire gauge, or three sixty-fourth parts of an
inch in diameter, and shall contain in each inch square at least eleven wires each
way at right angles to each other, that is, in all twenty- two wires to the inch square.

10. It shall be the duty of an engine driver in charge of a locomotive engine
passing over any such railway, within the limits of any such Fire District, to see that
all 6uch appliances as are above mentioned are properly used and applied, so as to
pi event the unnecessary escape of fire from any tuch engine, as far as it is reason-
ably possible to do so.

1 1. Whosoever unlawfully neglects or refuses to comply with the requirements
of this Act, in any manner whatsoever, shall be liable, upon conviction before any
justice of the peace, to a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars, over and above the costs
of prosecution, and in default of payment of such fine and costs, the oflfender shall be
imprisoned in the common gaol for a period not exceeding three calendar months;
and any railway company permitting any locomotive engine to be run in violation
of the provisions of this Act shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars
for each offence, to be recovered, with costs, in any court of competent jurisdiction.

13. Every suit for any contravention of this Act shall be commenced within
three calender months immediately following such contravention.

13. All fines and penalties imposed and collected under this Act shall bo paid,
one-half to thecomplainer or prosecutor, and the other half to Her Majesty, for the
public use of the Province.

14. It shall be the special duty of every Crown lands agent, woods and forests
agent, and bushranger, to inforce the provisions and requirements of this Act, and in
all cases coming within the knowledge of any such agent or bushranger, to prosecute
every person guilty of a breach of any of the provisions or requirements of the same.

15. Nothing in this Act contained shall be held to limit or interfere with the
right of any person to bring and maintain a civil action for damages occasioned by
fire, and such right shall remain and exist as though this Act had not passed.

PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK.

{The Consolidated Statutes, Chapter 107.)

Section IG. Any person who shall kindle a fire in any woods or open place, and
leave the sumo burning, without being properly secured, whereby damage may bo
caused to the property of any other person, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding eighty
dollars, ard Ic liable to an action for the damages sustained in addition thereto.

APPALLING CALAMITIES CAUSED BY FOB EST FIRES.

GREAT FIRE OP MIRAMICHI.

McGregor's " British America " contains the following description of the great
fire of Miiamichi : —

In October, 1825, about 140 miles in extent and a vast breadth of the country on
the north, and from 60 to 70 miles on the south side of the Miramichi River, became

53

a scene of perhaps the most dreadful conflagration that has occurred in the history of
the world.

In Europe a conception can scarcely be formed of the fury and rapidity with
which fires rage through the forests of America during a dry, hot season, at which
period the broken underwood, decayed vegetable substances, fallen branches, bark
and withered trees are as inflamable as the absence of moisture can make them. To
such irresistable food for combustion we must add the auxiliary of the boundless fir
forests, every tree of which, in its trunk, bark, branches and leaves, contains vast
quantities of inflamable resin.

When one of these fires is once in motion, or at least when the flames extend
over a few miles of the forest, the surrounding air becomes highly rarified, and the
wind consequently increases until it blows a perfect hurricane. It appears that the
woods had been, on both sides, partially on fire for some days, but not to an alarming
extent until the 7th of October, when it came on to blow furiously from the west-
ward, and the inhabitants along the river were suddenly surprised by an extraordin-
ary roaring in the woods, resembling the crashing and detonation of loud and inces-
sant thunder, while at the same time the atmosphere became thickly darkened with
smoke.

They scarcely had time to ascertain the cause of this awful phenomena before
all the surrounding woods appeared in one vast blaze, the flames ascending to from
100 to 200 feet above the tops of the trees, and the fire rolling forward with indes-
cribable celerity, presented the terribly sublime appearance of an impetuous foaming
ocean. In less than an hour Douglastown and Newcastle were in a blaze ; many of
the wretched inhabitants perished in the flames. More than 100 miles of the valley
of the Miramichi were laid waste, independent of the north-west branch, the Battiboa
and the Nappan settlements. From 100 to 200 persons perished within immediate
observation, while thrice that number were miserably burned or wounded, and at
least 2,000 were left destitute of the means of subsistence, and were thrown for a
time on the humanity of the Province of New Brunswick. The number of lives that
were lost in the woods could not be ascertained at the time, but it was thought that
few were left to tell the tale.

Newcastle presented a painful scene of ruin and devastation ; only 14 houses out
of 250 remained standing. The courthouse, gaol, churches and barracks, with ships
on the stocks, were all reduced to ashes.

The loss of property is incalculable, for the fire, borce upon the wings of a
hurricane, rushtd upon the wretched inhabitants with such inconceivable rapidity
that the preservation of their lives could be their only care.

Several ships were burned in the harbor, while others were saved from the
flames by the exertions of their owners, after having been actually on fire.

At Douglastown scarcely any kind of property escaped the ravages of the flames,
which swept off" the surface everything coming in contact with it, leaving but little
time for the unfortunate inhabitants to fly to the shore ; and there, by means of boat?,
canoes, rafts of timber, logs or any article, however ill-calculated for the purpose,
they endeavored to escape from the scene, and reach the town of Chatham, numbers
of men, women and children perishing in the attempt.

In some parts of the country all the cattle were either destroyed or suffered
greatly, for the very soil was parched and burned up, while scarcely any article of
provision was rescued from the flames.

The hurricane raged with such dreadful violence that large bodies of timber on
fire as well as trees from the forest, and parts of the flaming houses and stores, were
cai'ried to the river with amazing velocity, to such an extent aff'ecting the water in
such a manner as to occasion large quantities of salmon and other fish to resort to
land, hundreds of which were scattered on the shores of the south and west branches.

Chatham was filled with miserable suff'erers; every hour brought to it the
wounded and burned, in the most abject state of distress.

Great fires raged about the same time in the forests of the Eiver St. John, which
destroyed much property and timber, with the Governor's houee and about eighty
private houses in Fredericton. Fires raged at the same time in the northern parts
of the Province, as far as the Bay de Chaleur.
5

54

It is impossible to tell how many lives wore lost, as many of those lumbcriog in
the woods had no friends or connections in the country to note their non-appearance.
Five hundred haa been computed as the least number that actually perished in the
flames.

The destruction of bears, foxes, tie;er-cats, martins, hares, squirrels, and other
wild animals, was very great. These, when surprised by such fires, are said, to lose
their usual sense of preservation, and becoming, as it were, either giddy or fatcinated,
often rush into the face of inevitable destruction ; eve.i the birds, except tho^eof very
strong wing, seldom escape. Some, particularly the partridges, become stujiefied ;
and Ibe density of the smoke, the rapid velocity of the flames and the violence of the
winds, etttctually prevent the flight of others.

In Murray's " British North America," it is stated that the benevolent contribu-
tions received after this calamity were so ample that the surplus was employed in
founding a school in the chief seat of the calamity.

GREAT FIEB IN WISCONSIN.

In 1871, a fire broke out in "Wisconsin, which was very disastrous in its results.
Like the Miramicbi fire, it occurred after a season of protracted drought, and, like it,
too, it took place in the early part of October. The scene was the northern part of
the Slate, and the results in Io=s of life and property far exceeded anything hitherto
known in the western States. The *' Legislative Manual," of 1872, gives an account
of it, written by C. D. Robinson.

The great fire of the summer and fall of 1871 will long be remembered by the
people of Wisconsin. With the exception of a slight shower, of only an hour or two
in duration, in the month of September, no rain had fallen between the 8th of July
and the ninth of October — some three months. The streams, swamps and wells
dried up, the fallen leaves and underbrush, which covered the ground in the forest,
became so dry as to be as ignitable almost as powder, and the ground itself, especially
in the cases of alluvial or the bottom lands, was so utterly parched as to permit of
being burned to a depth of a foot or more. To use a poetical expression, which
became almost a reality, " The sky was as brass, and the earth ashes."

For weeks preceding the culmination of this state of things in the terrible con-
flagration of the 8th and 9th of October, fires were sweeping through the timbered
country, and in some instances the prairies and openings in all that part of Wisconsin
lying north of Lake Horicon, or Winnebago Marsh, which was itself on fire. Farmers,
saw-mill owners, railroad men, indeed all interested in exposed property, were called
upon far constant and exhaustive labor, day and night, in contending against the
advancing fire.

The saw mills in the pine region of Brown, Shawano, Oconto, Manitowoc,
Keewaunee and Door counties are, many of them, located in the very midst of the
pine forests, surrounded with a dibris of slabs, edgings, shingles, refuse, &c., forming
a ready conductor for the undermining fires in the forests adjoining to the mills and
houses around them. The work of protecting these mills was long, harrassing and
exhausting, the ground being so dry that water could not be obtained from the wells,
and the means of defence were mainly by circumvalating the property with ditches.
These were, in main, efloctual, so long as the fire presented the ordinary character of
previous forest fires, not fanned by gales and supplemented by a long-heated and
ignitable condition of the atmosphere, which, as wo shall see, followed later on. In
this labor of fighting fire the mill men, farmers and others were engaged throughout
October, the exhausting work going with good cheer, in the constant hope that either
the welcome rain would come or that finally the ground would be wholly burned
over, and leave nothing further for the flames to feed upon. Still no rain came, and
a gloom seemed to settle on the doomed region.

The long-continued labor of fighting the fire exhausted all energies, and an over-
hanging smoke permeated the atmosphere, sometimes so dense as to prevent seeing
objects a few rods distant, seriously aliecting the eyes and lungs. This was not
alone the case in the forests, but also in towns and in largely cleared settlements.
In Giesn Bay, Depore, Appleton, Oconto, Monomone, Keewaunee and other places,

the smoke was so dense that buildings at the distance of a square were invisible ;
and on the lake and bay the smoke assumed the dimensions of an immense fog,
obscuring the shores and rendering navigation difficult. The fire also made travel
on the roads difficult and often dangerous. Trees, fallen and burning, obstructed the
highways, and bridges in every direction were burned. It was a compensation in
these cases, however, if it could be called one, that where bridges were gone the
streams were dried up, thus allowing them to be passed without much difficulty.
The Chicago and North- Western Eailway ran for fifty miles through this burning
region, between Oshkosh and Green Bay, and it was only by the services of a large
force of men stationed along that line that it was kept in passable condition^

The fires approached the track so closely in many places that trains had to run at
increased speed to prevent their taking fire. As an illustration of the narrow escapes
on that fatal Sunday of the 8th of October, we may mention that Older's Circus, a
long and heavy caravan, composed of eighty horses and twenty waggons, passed
safely along that day over the bridges between Green Bay and Manitowoe, some of
which were burning at the time, and nearly all of which were destroyed before night.
If any one of the bridges which spanned the' deep and impassable ravines on that
road had been burned in advance of the progress of the caravan, it would have been
hemmed in and destroyed. Many devises were resorted to for the protection of life,
excavations were made in the earth, with earth-covered roofs, in which people sought
refage. Many resorted to wells, which, from the long drought, had become dry. And
much property which had been taken from the houses and placed in the open fields
for safety was destroyed. But time drew on, the ground was burned over, and the
long-harrassed people began to take breath, believing that the worst was past.

This was the condition of things on Sanday, the 8th of October, The air was
dense with smoke, and fitful blasts of hot air, so stifling that at times it was difficult
to breathe. All these northern towns had kept ready, as well as they could, for the
emergency. In Green Bay the fire-engines had been kept at work wetting the
buildings, and an extra police force was detailed to keep watch. The buildings were
so dry that a spark would set them on fire ; flakes of ashes from the smouldering
timbers fell in the streets like a snow storm ; and the citizens were as anxious as if in
the face of some impending calamity. A hot southerly gale was blowing, and in the
midst of it a house took fire in the central part of the city. The interior was only
slightly burned, however, and the fire was extinguished before it reached the outer
air. Had it obtained headway imagination fails to comprehend the re=^ult.

The country on three sides of the town was on fire, and on the fourth, where lay
the only apparent outlet, were the waters of the bay, into which must have swarmed
the population to a death only preferable to that which followed at their backs. It
was the same gale that swept over Chicago. That city was then burning, though
we did not know it ; and that day and night the deadly blast was sweeping through
the country northward, filling the land with death and destruction, unknown, as
well, to us.

A few miles, in a north-weaterly direction from Green Bay, lay the village of
Pishtigo, having a population of about 1,500. The place was a hive of industry,
principally in the manufacture of wooden wares, lumbering, &c. There was a railroad
(C. and JSi.W.) in course of construction, and it is believed that there was an
additional transient population of 300 people on that terrible Sunday, 8th October.
Of these people only 1,000 are accounted for since the fire, while all over the desolated
plain and in the forests, and in the river bed, human bones attest the fearful loss of life.

The people all day seemed to have a dreadful premonition of some dreadful
calamity impending. About eight o'clock in the evening an unusual and strange
sound was heard — a gradual roaring and rumbling approached. It has been likened
to the sound of an approaching railroad train — to tbe roar of a cataract — and men who
had been through the war of the rebellion likened it to the roar of battle, with
artillery booming in the distance.

The poor people, worn out with incessant watching for weeks, were panic-stricken
at this new feature, the glare of which approached rapidly, but the fire came not in
the usual way, along the ground, as they had been accustomed to see it, but consam-

56

ing Iho Irce-topp, and filling tl»o air with a whirlwind of flamo — tho stoutest heart
quailed before it. There have been many theories in explanation of this phenomenon,
but it is more reasonably attributed to the formation of gas in the long heated pine
forests. Ilundreds of people threw themselves into the rivers, others prostrated
themselves on the ground, believing the last day had come, and that all the conditions
of the prophecies had been fulfilled.

Of the village of Pishtigo there was not a vestige. The river was crowded
with people, horses, cattle and swine ; many were drowned at once; others sunk after
exhaustation, while others survived tho dreary long night's watch.

The subject is too painful to dwell upon. Next morning the remainder of tho
heart-stricken people made their way to the nearest villages ; all doors were open
with generous hospitality, and in the words of Mr. Eobinson (from whose report I
have cocdeneed), "If there never was such a fire, there, also, never was before such
a healing of its tears."

The fire extended over an area of 500 square miles.

The Abbe Pernon, a Catholic missionary, then in charge of a church atPishtigo,
has published a small book on the subject (" Le doigt de Dieu est la !"), in which he
graphically describes the terrible scenes.

" Picture to yourself a country covered by a denee forest growth, in the midst
of which, here and there, along the roads, a clearing of greater or less extent — some-
times half a league wide, to make room for a young city ; and at other times, three
or four acres, the beginning of a farm. Except in these little spots where the trees
had been cut and burned, tlie whole country was a rude, vast, but majestic wilder-
ne.'S — woods, everywhere woods, and nothirg else, as far as one might wish to go,
from the bay towards the north and west. The surface was generally uneven ; in
valleys grew the cedar and the spruce ; and on the sandy hills evergreens, and in
the places where the land was dry and rich were all kinds of hardwood, oak, maple,
beech, ash, elm and birch. The temperature of this region is generally quite
regular, and propitious for all kinds of grain. The rains are frequent, and seldom
fail in seasonable time. But the year l&Tl had been exceptionally dry, and the
farmers, availing themselves of this opportunity for enlarging their fields, had made
larger cuttings for burning off. Some hundreds of workmen were also at that time
employed in opening a railroad, and they used the axe and fire freely in advancing
their work. The hunters and the Indians roam continually through these woods and
forests, especially in autumn, at which season they follow up the streams to fi&h for
trout, or scatter through the woods in hunting deer. When evening comes, they
kindle a great fire, wherever they happen to be, cook their supper, spread down
their blankets, and rolling themselves up, they sleep in peace, well knowing that the
fire will keep off the wild animals that might be passing in the night. In the morn-
ing they depart, leaving behind the embers that have protected and warmed them,
without a thought about extinguishing them. The farmers do the same thing them-
selves, so that in autumn these woods are everywhere filled with fires that have
been kindled by the hand of man, and finding an abundance of dead leaves and dry
branches, the flames spread to greater or less extent. When the wind rises, these
fires sometimes take fearful proportions, and sweep everything furiously before
them."

The fire around Pishtigo had been burning for weeks, and tho to^n had more
than one narrow escape. The Abbe says : —

" It was a grand spectacle to observe the fire in the night. It shot up to the
summit of the largest trees, the flames coiling around them like immense serpents,
and leaping from branch to branch, they illuminated the whole country, darting
tongues of fire into the midst of the green foliage, +hey created a moaning through
the forest, as in a fearful tempest.

" Every few moments some anc'ent firs along thoir enormous trunks suddenly
became so many columns of flames, crackling for a time, and then falling with the
noise o5 thunder, raising great clouds of sparks and dense volumes of resinous
smoke. The sombre contrast of these volumes of black smoke above seemed to
announce the speedy death and desolation of everything below.

57

" Thousands of birds, aroused from thoir perches, flew about, not knowing what
direction to take, uttering cries that made the night still more hideous, as they
called to their matej, turned a few times in the air, and then disappeared in the fur-
nace of flame below them. Thus the night passed, all hearts praying for rain, but it
came not.

** On Sunday morning the wind fell into a calm, the fires seemed to be dying out,
and we began to hope that the danger was past. But about 11 o'clock, while many
people were in church, a gust of wind made the edifice crack, and the whole congre-
gation rushed out to see what was about to happen. The fire had a new start in a
log cutting in the woods, and the wind was blowing strong from the north-west.
The forest fires were raging worse than ever, and were approaching directly towards
them. The air was literally filled with cinders and sparks of fire ; the engine was
brought out, and hundreds of buckets were got from the factory, and everything
possible was done to prevent the fii-e from getting into the village. But suddenly
there appeared a new danger, for the wind changed to the west, when the fires were
rapidly advancing, and it seemed that nothing but a miracle could save the whole
from destruction, and clouds of smoke filled the air so densely that no one could see
what to do or where the danger was greatest. The most energetic measures were,
however, adopted for arresting the progress of the fire, all hands being employed
that could be brought to the work."

I have seen the prairie fires run with the speed of a locomotive. They are
grand and terrible, but insignificant in comparison with a fire in the forest. In pro-
portion as the woods are more dense and high and large than the prairie grass, by so
much are the forest fires more intense and grand. The fires on the prairie, when
driven by the winds, glide over the dry and dead herbage, but they soon leave no
trace of fire behind, except the blackened surface; but in the woods fii-es travel
quite as fast, but they hold out longer and produce a heat that is infinitely more
intense. It is no easy matter to withstand a sweeping forest fire, for if you try to
fetay its progress you run an imminent risk of being surrounded by the flames.

The agony of suspense which these people endured during that dreadful after-
noon was terrible. The wind from the west, accompanied by a black suffocating
smoke, seemed to get red and redder, until suddenly there came an immense glowing
red light, accompanied by a heavy roaring sound. The atmosphere became heavy
and oppressive, and in a few minutes the unfortunate inhabitants became panic
stricken. Amongst other remarkable features of the occasion he notes the electrical
condition of the atmosphere. He says: —

" The phenomena that struck me as remarkable was a flashing light that shone
suddenly, like grains of powder touched by fire, and that flew from room to room.
It seemed as if the atmosphere were saturated with some gas."

The scene at the river, to which the people fled in their terror, he describes : —
" The vortices of wind, in their constant rise, had, so to speak, pumped up the
smoke, the dust and the ashes, so that we could see clearly. The river bank, as far
as the eye could reach, was crowded with people, upright and motionless, along the
edge of the water. Some had their eyes open and raised to heaven, but most of them
had no idea that they could do anything to save themselves, and some believed, as
they afterwards said, that the end of the world was come. >)=***

Being out of breath I could not speak, but pushed into the river those that were
nearest and plunged in myself. An instant later I heard a splashing all along in the
water, and it was none too soon, for one could scarcely breathe ; the intensity of the
heat increased, and in a few moments nothing could withstand it. ^ * *

Once in the water up to the ears, I thought myseU safe from the tire, but it was not
60. The flames ran upon the water as upon the ground ; the air was filled with them,
or rather the air was fire. It seized our heads, and we were obliged to throw water
continually with our hands upon our hair and the parts necessarily exposed for
breathing. Many persons had thrown clothirg and bedding into the river to save it,
and whenever any of this came within reach it was seized and used for covering, but
it dried so quickly by the heat that though wet continuously it would take fire.

" The horrid whirlwind that had blcwn so fiercely when I left my place had, as
I have remarked^ clarified the atmosphere ; the river was bright — brighter than

58

day — and looking up and down I saw evorywhoro heads jii;»t abivo tho lovol of tho
water, some bare and others covered, but all continually throwincr water upon their
heads. Looking from the river, either to the right or to the left, the firmament
showed nothing but fire — tbo houses, the trees, the atmosphere itself. Above ray
head, as far as my vision could penetrate space, alas I too clearly, I could see nothing
but flames — immense billows of flame that covered the whole sky, and rolled one upon
another, as if violently agitated, as we see clouds driven in a storm — a sea of waves
and a horrible tempest of fire.

" After about an hour's stay in the water such as survived crawled out, chilled
and scorched."

Further on, in his book, the au'hor again refers to the condition of the air, just
before the great outburst of fire. He says : —

" It is hard to doubt that the atmosphere was at that time saturated with
inflamable gas, destructive to human life. I have mentioned the flashes of light leap-
ing in my rooms just before I left my house. On going to the river I met, in some
]ilace>j, strata of air, in which I could hardly breathe, and where I had to stoop almost to
the ground to catch breath, although the violence of the wind would almost throw me
down in spite of my efforts to prevent it. While I was in the river, and on looking
up, I could see, as it were, a sea of fire violently agitated by the wind, and immense
wav(8 of flame rolling one upon another, mounting to a prodigious height in the air,
and, of course, far above the reach of all inflamable materials. How can this
phecomena be explained without admitting that there were great bodies of some such
gas collected in the air ?

"It was passing strange, but some dead bodies showed no marks of burning,
and although their pockets were untouched, their watches, copper coins, and other
metallic objects were melted. How, again, did it happen that some human lives,
here and there, on farms and in the woods, were saved ? This is a difficult question
to answer, except that the tempest did not rage everywhere alike."

In many places where valuable articles, such as books and other treasures, were
buried one foot under the sand, they were entirely consumed.

GREAT FIRE IN MICEIGAN FORESTS.

The year 1881, like the years of the Miramichi and Wisconsin fires, was remark-
able for a long sumaer drought. All through August and September fires had been
burning in many places in the woods on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and in
many places the settlers had fires going on to clear their lands; but no alarm or fear
of di>aslers was entertained till about the end of August; the smoke caused the
atmo'^phere on Lake Huron to become so thick as to make navigation dangerous.
This state continued all through September, except slight variations caused by
changes of wind.

The Detroit Tribune, of 11th October, 1881, says: "From every direction come
tidings that the surrounding fires, for the past four weeks, have been lashed into fury
by the recent prevailing high winds ; the woods are blazing on every side, and the
parched earth itself furnishing a free conductor for the harrowing and burning element
that ran underneath, and thus, as well as on the surface, spreads far and wide. Farm
buildings, fences, and stacks of hay and grain have fallen a prey ; and the damage
that has been inflicted on wordlands and farm fields is incalculable."

This great fire covered about 1,500 square miles of ground, and it is estimated
that about 15,000 people lost their homes, crops and live stock. The number of
human lives lost in these terrible fires will never be known, as in many places the
heat was so intense that it consumed bones and all. Sailors on Lake Huron felt the
heat C) miles away. It withered the leaves on the trees 2 miles from its path. A
lady, escaping with her little girl through the woods, met with some deer, which
came up to her and walked close up to her, as if seeking her protection^ Fields of
corn and potatoes, not touched by the flames, were roasted by the heat.

A report, published under ihe direction of General Haz)n, signal service oflSce,
says : —

59

" The speed with which the wind and flames travelled is almost incalculable.
Large boulders were rolled along the ground as if they were pebbles. The conflagra-
tion is described as roaring like a tornado, and as giving fourth loud explosive sounds
that were terrifying. As the storm advanced it uprooted great trees, blew down
buildings, lifted people from their feet." An anonymous writer says : '• Dark and
gloomy swamps, filled with pools of stagnant water, the home of wild-cats, bears, and
snakes, were struck and shrivelled and burned almost in a flash."

In the signal service report, already referred to, among other causes given are
the protracted drought and strong winds (natural causes).

Acres of dead timber left standing from former forest fires, windfalls, "slash-
ings," pine-tops, and other inflamable materials, distributed over hundred-? of miles.
Carelessness of settlers in the management of local fires.

The estimated value of buildings and live stock destroyed is about S2,000,000,
while the loss in fences and forest timber is variously estimated at from 850,000,000
to $100,000,000.

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Q/^ University of British Columbia Library

3-ks DUE DATE

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AGRICULTURE

FORESTRY
• IIBRARY

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