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Show CHAPTER III TIMBER AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS OP NORTH AMERICA ( i500- 1900) \ \ T E X T to purely geographical considerations the 1N character and distribution of the vegetable products have probably played the most important part in determining the direction and permanence of the settlement of the different parts of North America. From one point of view the distribution of plant life is simply the working out of variation in soil and climate; but to the native as well as to the immigrant the product of the soil and not the cause of that product demands first attention. Hencev the presence or absence of forests and the character of the available vegetable food supply have not only modified the cultures of the Indian groups, but have regulated and determined the flow of civilized population. The forest belt of the continent extends far to the north, including nearly the whole of Labrador, everything south of a line drawn from the middle of the western shore of Hudson Bay to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, and all of Alaska except the 39 |
