might furnish the trees (deciduous-the conifer are too shady in the spring) it the farmers would plant, and keep them in order.-CHARLES E. TORRANCE, Burlington, Halton Co.

Very little is being done here in the interest of forestry. The forests are fast disappearing, and indeed there is not much use in trying to save the heavy timber, for the high winds of late years blow it down. There are some lines of trees being planted for ornament, none for wind-break to my knowledge. No plantations of forest trees except those planted in rows along fences or on the roadside. I do not know of any bush where cattle are fenced out to save the young trees. Of course there are some sugar bushes nicely kept. Since the country has been cleared, the winds are very much higher, drifting the snow, blocking the roads, breaking down fences and even buildings at times. If the children in the country schools were taught the principles of forestry, it would through them reach the right persons, and would I think, do good. If some of our politicians would tell the farmers about the influence of the forest upon the climate, and talk less about politics, they would then be doing some good for the country.-J. NEWMAN, Cardinal, Grenville Co.

1. Lines for wind-breaks not planted to any extent, but for shade and ornament quite freely, the maple especially. Where cattle are kept away, they thrive well. Have planted myself a large number of Norway spruce, Scotch fir and larch. The firs have done well, the larch not so well. 2. I do not know of any plantations having been set out in this neighborhood. 3. Generally speaking, cattle have not been fenced out of the bush, the consequences being that our woods are rapidly disappearing, and in a few years we will have no bush to fence. The trees are dying faster than we can use them, and in many cases the little piece of bush left is being cut down to save its value in dollars and cents. 4. There is a great difference in the way the rainfall finds its way off the surface. Creeks that once run all the year round, are now dry except for a week or two after heavy rains, when they fill up suddenly, causing floods that are very destructive. 5. Some little thing, however, each one of us might do, we could plant a few hundred evergreens round our houses and barns, which besides adorning our homes and making the landscape a thing of beauty and joy forever," would naturally add to our comfort, and our children after us would rise up and call us blessed.-JAMES WILLIAMSON, Jarvis, Haldimand Co.

The following letters are from various nursery-men and tree-growers, who were asked to give their opinion on the value of tree shelter:

As regards tree planting as wind-breaks for orchards, I find that those who have wind-breaks are of the opinion that there is a decided benefit derived therefrom, in preventing the fruit from blowing off, also a protection from the cold in winter. I have noticed fruit trees have a healthier appearance where they are protected by an evergreen belt, than those that are exposed. I am convinced the Norway spruce, ash and Scotch pines, are the best trees for wind-breaks, they grow rapidly, are hardy, live long, bear transplanting well. I would advise planters to plant two or three foot trees twice transplanted, as they will have more success with that size than smaller.-M. MILGAN, Bright, Oxford Co.

I will give you one fact which is worth a host of arguments:

The apple crop is almost a total failure here, but there is one orchard of one hundred and sixty trees, owned by B. Johnston, Esq., of Carleton. The tenant, James Kingdom, has refused $450 for the year's crop as it hung on the trees. This orchard adjoins the village of Islington, and I can vouch for the facts.

I think it is a mistake to plant shade trees on country roads where the soil is clay, as it prevents the roads from drying, but on sand or along inside fences they would do much good. There is a grove of young pines on the north of

Mr. Johnston's orchard, it covers about half an acre, and protects the trees from the north winds. That is the only reason I can find why this is the only orchard with a crop of fruit on it, in this locality.-J. D. EVANS, Islington, York Co.

There have been many trees planted in this district, many more than have been cared for. Some have the idea, after a tree is planted that is all that is needed, and should make a fine tree without further care, hence so many failures. -A. G. HULL, St. Catharines, Lincoln Co,

The devastation of our forests have rendered it necessary to import European trees, of which I believe the Norway spruce to be the best for shelter, being evergreen. Orchards unsheltered have their fruit blown from the trees untimely, and in time the trees become unfruitful and their growth stunted. I firmly believe the cause of many failures is the planting of trees that are too old. I have planted successfully maple, poplar and spruce.-WM. VAIR, Barrie, Simcoe County.

I think the greatest example of the benefits of protection from heavy winds that I know of, is the notorious fact that along the base of the Niagara escarpment, frost is almost invariably three weeks at least later in doing damage to fruit in the autumn than it is one hundred rods even from the base. It cannot be said therefore that frost is kept off entirely by the wind off the lake, though of course in the winter and spring it is chiefly the proximity of Lake Ontario on the north that makes fruit growing here so successful. In a lesser degree therefore I should say wind-breaks would prevent in a measure the early autumn frosts, provided they are not on the side nearest the water, which is the greatest safeguard at all seasons. It is little use urging the planting of forest trees upon the majority of men until it can be shown to be directly profitable in their own generation, though there may be here and their a man public spirited and farseeing enough to plant them. In this township of Saltfleet, though a bonus of twenty cents per tree is paid for each tree planted on the roadside, and no cattle. or stock of any kind is allowed to run at large unherded, still very few comparatively have planted. I have long urged the importance of the subject. The benefits of wind-breaks on the south and west side of every ten acre field to the crop of winter wheat or clover in causing the snow to lie evenly over the field would soon repay the loss of tillable land. One row of trees would in a few years answer instead of posts, to which wires could be attached for a fence. A row of hard maples would pay well in the crop of delicious syrup and maple sugar which they would produce in twenty years from planting, chestnuts on suitable soil will pay as well as any fruit, and moreover one row might be a row of apple trees. It can easily be demonstrated that a direct source of revenue could be derived from such strips, which I would plant four rods in width, irrespective of the indirect gains previously mentioned.

Every farmer knows that on the lee side of every fence immense snow drifts slowly melting in the spring, often keeps him a week or perhaps two weeks off the land, when the remainder of the field is dry, involving often a crop five or ten bushels per acre less than if sowed earlier. With heavy wind-breaks, the snow would lie evenly over the land and disappear evenly.

It may be urged that tall trees would keep the land shaded and wet on the north side. This could be obviated by planting the very tall growing trees on south side of the belt, gradually decreasing the height, so that the row nearest the north of the belt would be say a row of apple trees, that if it shaded the ground for a short distance would return a profit for a narrow strip left unsown to be cultivated later, as all orchard trees should be, and continuously through the A farm surrounded and adorned by rows of evergreens, is a charming sight; some may be seen in Burford township. I am sure such farms would sell

season.

to a man of taste for ten dollars per acre more than one unadorned, though the owner of such a farm seldom needs or wishes to sell.-E. D. SMITH, Winona, Wentworth Co.

I have noticed with the gradual destruction of the forests year by year, a corresponding increase of drouths, and while we may even now have as great a rainfall from year to year as in the days when our forests were in their prime, yet the exposure of such a large proportion of the country's surface to the direct rays of the sun, accompanied by an unobstructed motion of the air, soon absorbs the moisture given by any rain, and in such case of rapid evaporation, the soil becomes hardened and cracks open, making the matter all the worse. Anyone engaged in using or running dry kilns of any kind, whether in making brick, drying lumber or evaporating fruits, will soon learn the necessity of a high temperature with the application of a rapid draft of dry air, in order to rapidly extract the water, and carry off the same. Sturtevant gives the following table as correct, and I have found in my experience in evaporating apples, that he is right in his theory, but the amount of water given is too high. Assuming that 1 cubic foot of air at 32° Fah. or freezing point, will carry of an ounce of water, he claims that with a rise of 27° or at 59° Fah. 1 cubic foot will carry double that oroz., and with every 27° additional in the rise of temperature, the atmosphere will absorb and carry off double the amount of water, therefore with a temperature of 194, being about the average temperature at which evaporators are usually run, each cubic foot will carry 16 ounces of water. Then if the draft of air is by any means increased, the absorption is increased in proportion. Now I have noticed that this is precisely the state of things in reference to the present action of the sun's heat and the unobstructed breezes and high winds, upon the surface of our country as it is now denuded of its forests. The hotter the weather, and the greater the velocity of the wind at the same time, the more rapid will be the absorption of moisture from the soil, and the more severe will be our drouths, and the more destructive will be our rains, accompanied by more frequent winds and cyclones. I believe the most practical outlay in the way of tree-planting, would be in planting wind-breaks of evergreens, and allowing them to grow as tall as possible, thus diminishing the absorbing action of the wind by decreasing its speed, and at the same time beautifying the country and making it more comfortable in winter as well as summer.-JOSEPH TWEDDLE, Stony Creek, Wentworth Co.

Norway spruce and Austrian pine are about the best kind of trees for windbreaks. We know of some very fine Norway spruce windbreaks around nursery grounds in New York State. The trees are planted close together, almost like in hedge row, and stand now from thirty to forty feet high, making a complete shelter from all heavy winds.-SMITH & VAN DUSER, Winona, Wentworth Co.

It is now very evident that good timber of any kind will soon be very scarce and dear, and unless something is done to prevent deforestry of the country, we will soon be under the expensive necessity of importing lumber. For re-foresting burnt off areas, I believe there is no tree so well adapted as the white pine. The European larch, Scotch pine, and Austrian pine, grow quickly into useful timber, but in that respect they are not at all equal to the white pine. If I were to plant out a forest with a view of obtaining remunerative returns, I would plant it all of white pine. I would plant thickly and thin out as they grew large. For shelter belts I should prefer the Norway spruce, white spruce and Austrian pine.-D. NICOL, Kingston.

In the vicinity of Drummondville, Ont., there have been a great many trees (principally Norway spruce) planted as a protection to orchards and small fruits with much benefit. But would not recommend either too close or too wide a

belt of spruce around an orchard, or too close to the orchard, as the breaking off of all the wind tends to increase the codling moth. I would recommend the European larch as the best and most rapid grower of any.-E. MORRIS, Fonthill, Welland.

I would say, if the ground is stiff clay, for young trees I take some coarse sand, and work the sand and soil together and work it around the young roots of the tree; and if you plant one tree with sand and another without sand, you will see that the tree planted with sand will outgrow the other in two years. You will find the same with all kinds of trees and shrubs.-W. M. MORRIS, Seaforth, Huron Co.

We might mention our experience with a small peach orchard. During the past ten years we have had about one hundred trees planted where they are sheltered from the north and west winds by a belt of oak and birch timber. This orchard has repeatedly borne a good crop during seasons when others in the immediate vicinity, but without a shelter, had no fruit whatever.-WEBSTER BROS., Hamilton.

GENERAL CONDITION OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FORESTS.

Translated from the German by H. Von Lorenz

Dr. Mayr, from whose late publication," The Forests of North America," this article is taken, writes it as an official report for the benefit of Germany. It was written in Japan, where he is now professor of sylviculture, at Tokio. It is very interesting to Canadians, as the view of an educated foreigner. He visited America twice for the purpose:

When the first Europeans landed on the new continent, they found before them one immense forest.

A vast virgin forest extended at that time from the south point of Florida. to the coast of Labrador, through thirty-five degrees of latitude, and from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean to the border of the prairie, that means fully twenty degrees of longitude. If you count the average length of this forest at twentyfive degrees of latitude and the average breadth at twenty degrees of longitude, the forest originally covered the tenfold area of the German Empire; how much of this exists at the present time is hard even to guess.

The non-observant person who travels through North America generally has the impression that the forests are in their original state, that with the exception of a few States forests so prevail that farms only form a small factor of the whole; but the expert would realize immediately that hardly one-third of those woods which his ancestors found 400 years ago now deserves the name of forest." Two thirds are of later growth, or composed of the remnants of their kind, left only on account of their lack of value. The original virgin forests flourished everywhere, in the mountains as well as in the plains. No rock in the Alleghany Mountains was too steep to prevent single trees from growing in amongst the boulders; the soil of none of the plains was too poor or unproductive, but that large forests would grow in the course of centuries. The swamps alone were the only portions of the country not covered with trees. This fact deserves to be recorded for the information of future generations: for already, in many portions of the country, the forests have been so annihilated that one would scarcely believe that those parts were once covered by magnificent woods.

(The reader will observe that at this point Dr. Mayr indulges in prophesy and takes up the idea which has before been stated on this side the Atlantic, that a large part of the west by planting will ultimately become forested, while the east and southern sea coast, once forested, will fail to preserve any sufficient amount.)

The person travelling through the states surrounding the Gulf of Mexico in fifty years from to-day would not believe that those deserts, covered for miles and miles with snow-white sand, once bore the most magnificent pine trees of the world. In fifty years no man will think it possible that those many bare and sandy rocky slopes of the Alleghanies once were covered with the finest oak, maple, elm and other trees.

In fifty years it will sound almost fabulous that those far-stretching swamps of the southern Wisconsin and Michigan were at one time covered with timbers. of the finest varieties and skirted by the finest white pines instead of the poor shrubbery of that day.

Now, let us go farther west and skip again fifty years. What splendid woods will flourish there, owing their existence to the hands of men, on plains once considered deserts incapable of producing anything. People will have planted those woods realizing their great advantages and benefits. Look then at the prosperity of these western settlers who will have propagated new forests in contrast with many of those in the east, who, by fire and axe, transformed their beautiful forests into desolate places and even deserts. The great mistake of the western settlers is likely to consist in mixing too many inferior kinds with the better grades, with the view of producing timber of more use for purposes of fuel than of manufacture. The European woods planted by them will

probably not realize their anticipation.

Let us go even farther west. In fifty years it will be almost impossible to comprehend that the beautiful and fertile California, the fruit garden of the Union, once was largely inferior prairie; we could even doubt to be in America, for forests of Australian eucalyptus and acacias grow everywhere; the once hot and barren prairie is transformed in a subtropical garden with all the advantages of this splendid climate.

The doctor then reviews the present:

Immense sums have been spent in the construction of dams to prevent the streams from the mountains from overflowing the lands during the heavy rains. Large amounts have also been expended in artificial irrigation after the natural supply of water has ceased from the destruction of the forests in the mountainous districts; the latter has been the case all through the United States. There are some more facts which the observant traveller in America can find every day.

A mountain devoid of trees having on the slopes among the big boulders portions of soil covered with grass and lying on the surface of the rocks, stumps and roots of trees interwoven like a spider's web. What vast quantities of the finest soil are washed down by the rain, owing to the senseless destruction of the forests. One year has destroyed more than centuries can replace. The rain previously partly absorbed by the forests descending in small streams, now rushes down in torrents more annihilating and destroying than fertilizing. Many of the beautiful mountains and valleys of the Alleghanies, Adirondacks, and even the western mountains, will soon be in the same condition. A good many prominent men have already tried to warn and even to interfere, but people declared them dreamers and boasted of the everlasting riches of their forests.