LU THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Cords of wood Value of wood Tons of pulp 

 used. in dollars. produced. 



Our forests, then, are not inexhaustible. They have already been 

 much injured and the eastern forests are now greatly depleted, and 

 their condition is becoming worse year by year. 



Such being the situation, is it not possible to adopt some course 

 of action which will conserve our forests and make them a permanent 

 source of industry and wealth for succeeding generations ? 



In the first place, we must recognize that the conservation of 

 our forests does not mean that they shall be locked up. We must all 

 agree with Dr. J. W. Robertson, when he says: "I have no sympathy 

 with people who would reserve our forests for our descendants. Con- 

 servation means taking the largest toll out of these revenues now and 

 leaving them not only unimpaired but extended and improved by wise 

 use, using the annual production, but not destroying or reducing the 

 source of supply." 



Let us see what other nations have done with their forests. 



The facts concerning these have been admirably presented by Dr. 

 Fernow in his "History of Forestry." I cite a few of them, giving 

 only the financial results, seeing that the objection generally urged 

 to the proper care and preservation of our forests in Canada is that 

 it would not pay. 



The Prussian forests in 1830, when systematic management had 

 been applied only for a short time, yielded a net revenue of 44 cents 

 per acre; this, by careful cultivation of the forests, had grown by 

 1907 to $2.52 per acre, that is to say, there was an improvement in net 

 results annually of 2J4 per cent compounded, while the principal — 

 the forest — was continually improving. Thus Prussia, from an acreage 

 which is about one-half of the area now under license in Ontario, 

 derives annually at least seven times the net income obtained from 

 the forests of Ontario, and that not by depleting its capital as Ontario 

 does, but merely taking the interest in annual growth; moreover, the 

 capital is continually increasing in value. 



In Saxony, with somewhat less than half a million acres of state 

 forest — mostly spruce — but most intensively managed, the net rev- 

 enue has increased from 62 cents to $6.00 per acre, this state in the 



