Silviculture in Canada 17 



use of whatever resources may be available, like, e.g., pasturage; 

 to improve these resources; to make them accessible, and, as far 

 as technical interest is concerned, to study the silvicultural prob- 

 lems against the day when they must be solved. 



All Reserves, however, once set aside for permanency, should 

 be administered under systematic working plans, more or less 

 elaborate, especially with reference to their utilization; and, if 

 they are to do justice not only to the present, but also to future 

 needs, such plans must eventually provide for the application of 

 proper silvictiltural methods for securing a continuance of wood 

 crops. 



There is no other productive business that needs so much 

 planned and consevative procedure as the business of producing 

 forest crops, for the reason that not only do these crops mature 

 slowly, but there is little chance to advance and improve the crop 

 after it is once started; its proper start, therefore, is the important 

 thing. The manufacturer can change his processes in a few weeks, 

 the farmer from year to year, but the forester, once his crop is 

 started, may not change his procedure for a century, and there is 

 only limited chance during the life of the crop to interfere with its 

 development; therefore, the necessity of careful planning. 



If our Reserves were all first-class, useful virgin timber, the 

 working plans would be a simple affair. They woiild consist in 

 prescribing the cutting of the year's requirements in such a manner 

 as to secure reproduction — a natural regeneration. But this is 

 by no means the condition, even in the well-wooded Reserves; 

 only small portions consist of mature, useful timber, largely 

 spruce; large portions, as a result of fires, represent young growth 

 or are grown up to undesirable or at least less useful species, prin- 

 cipally aspen; some of these aspen stands are rotten and useless; 

 some areas are mere brushlands, and still others entirely waste — 

 dilapidated woods which only a laborious buUding-up process can 

 bring into desirable productive condition, and that means careful 

 planning and eventually the necessity of expenditure in starting 

 future crops. 



In this connection, there is one feature of importance to which 

 I may refer in passing, that pertains at least to some of the Re- 

 serves in the prairie region which is encouraging in this respect, 

 namely the remarkable rapidity of growth, which excels that of 

 the eastern provinces, and promises early maturing of a valuable 



