Water for the Prairies

Prairie farmers often ruthlessly cut down the few trees that stood in the paths of their plows. Too late, it was realized that without these windbreaks the top soil became even more vulnerable to erosion. The Dominion Department of Agriculture experimental station at Indian Head, Saskatchewan, cultivated acres of young trees for distribution to farmers.

An account of how a city's water supply is purified. Each stage of purification in a filtration plant is shown, together with the complex system of underground mains serving all parts of the city. The safeguarding of water supplies on common carriers (trains, ships, aircraft) through regular government laboratory analyses is illustrated. The film closes with a glimpse of developments in the treatment of water supplies, including the addition of fluorine.

Fire and flood, wasted resources and barren lands are the penalties of forest destruction, warns this film, as it describes basic measures to preserve Canada's prime source of national wealth. Scenes of the wilderness created by stripping land of protective trees show the need to halt careless exploitation. Contrasting the slow process of re-seeding with the swift, modern methods of felling trees, the film urges planned cutting to ensure a continuing protected yearly crop and waste salvage.