XXVIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



the deforesting of the country. Since then the Society has always kept 

 the subject in view. In the last volume of the first series, is a paper 

 read by Professor Macoun upon the same subject. In the first volume 

 of the present series, is an earnest appeal from Section IV; and from 

 time to time, resolutions have been passed and lectures have been 

 delivered before the Society, urging the question upon the attention of 

 Government. 



Since 1882, the wood-pulp industry has developed with astonish- 

 ing rapidity, and the manufacture has advanced into the front rank of 

 industries essential to civilization. The sub-arctic forests of the 

 northern regions, formerly considered valueless, have in consequence 

 assumed importance, and many waste and rocky places, unsuited for 

 agriculture, are beginning to take on a hitherto unsuspected value, by 

 their suitability for successive growths of pulp-wood. It is fortunate 

 for the Dominion, that the trees best adapted for this great industry, 

 are the spruces and poplars of the northern forests. The possibilities 

 of the development of this new and promising business are only now 

 beginning to be evident. It is a promise of wealth from regions 

 hitherto supposed to be valueless. 



The Council has great satisfaction in following the work carried 

 on in the Northwest by the Superintendent of Forestry, a branch of 

 the Department of the Interior inaugurated three years ago. The 

 reports of this officer and his subordinates appear in the annual report 

 of that department. A million and a quarter trees were this spring 

 available at the different Experimental Farm stations for transplanting 

 upon the plains ; and the notices of the fire-rangers are ^not confined to 

 the limits of ordinary travel, but are posted all along the valley of the 

 Peace Eiver and far down the valley of the Mackenzie Eiver. So far, 

 then, as the influence of the Dominion Grovernment extends, strenuous 

 efforts are being made to extend tree-planting upon the plains. How 

 to check or prevent forest fires is an exceedingly difficult problem, but 

 the Dominion and some of the Provincial Governments are alive to its 

 importance. The whole subject has, within only a few years, sprung 

 into the first rank of questions of public interest. The Canadian 

 Forestry Association is doing most useful work by its intelligent scien- 

 tific discussions and, as its membership extends over the whole Dom- 

 inion, we may hope for great benefit to the country from its earnest 

 efforts. Few questions are so important to the welfare of Canada. 



35, Science Applied to Increasing Production. 



The application of scientific principles and methods to agriculture 

 proceeds steadily from year to year broadening its field of action. The 

 work of the experimental farms increases in scientific interest and 



