9() JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



pine of different ages. By 1920 it is expected that the scale of planting 

 will be increased to one million spruce and 100,000 white and red pine, 

 and that operations will be continued at this rate, using 3-year-old stock. 



Both these companies are confining their planting operations to lands 

 owned by them in fee simple, readily accessible to existing means of 

 transportation. This will give the plantations a high value when the 

 timber reaches commercial size. In order, however, to encourage large- 

 scale planting on private lands, it is imperative that provision be made 

 against excessive taxation. A low annual tax rate, with an added tax 

 when the crop is finally harvested, is most just to all concerned. 



The reforestation of denuded Crown timber lands is a problem of 

 large proportions, the solution of which belongs primarily to the Pro- 

 vincial government. The provincial forest nursery at Berthierville, 

 which has been in existence for nine years, has supplied millions of 

 voung trees to private land-owners, mostly farmers and pulp compa- 

 nies, including tw© million trees sold during 1908. The provincial for- 

 ester, Mr. G. C. Piche, announces that the capacity of this nursery is to 

 be increased to an annual production of five million young trees, partly 

 in contemplation of the provincial government adopting a program of 

 forest planting on denuded Crown timber lands. 



Forest Research in France 



The first feature to strike an American is the remarkable skill and 

 fineness of touch possessed by the French foresters and the compara- 

 tive poverty of their forest literature. The French foresters, by long 

 practice and by living constantly in close touch with their forests, have 

 developed a skill which I believe is unequalled anywhere else in the 

 world. To them forestry is an art, not a science ; an art based on the 

 experience of generations. This does not mean, however, that they are 

 satisfied with the methods which their predecessors considered the best. 

 They are constantly trying to improve upon the old methods, and they 

 assert their individuality in the adaptation of their favorite methods to 

 the particular forest. But they seldom write down their ideas ; why I 

 do not know. They keep most of them in their heads, so that the only 

 way one can ever obtain a complete knowledge of French forestry is by 

 conversation with the foresters in the woods. 



There seem to be several reasons why forestry has developed into an 

 art rather than a science in France. In the first place, the practice of 

 forestry antedates the development of modern science. It had, there- 

 fore, started along the road of empirical methods and already possessed 



