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A forest covered with timber trees, alike in dimensions and quality, was far from 

 being uniform in value, so long as there was no other mode of bringing it to market than 

 that of drawing it by teams to a bank, where it could be floated upon streams. The 

 parts nearest to floatable streams were first taken, and then successively the rest, until, 

 perhaps, the more remote remained without sale, for no other reason than the cost of 

 moving, which would equal or exceed its market price. 



But in recent years, since the introduction of railways, the facility for their con- 

 struction, and a marked increase in the demand and in the prices of lumber, have led to 

 their construction into timbered localities that could not formerly be reached, and often 

 with the intention of removing their tracks when this supply was spent. In a level 

 region like that in Michigan and in parts of the Southern States, where there were no 

 serious difiiculties in the way of construction, these railroads have rapidly exhausted the 

 supplies along their route, and are every year narrowing down and annihilating the 

 woodlands through which they pass, until we can now in many places almost see the 

 end of supplies which but a few years ago were looked upon as sufficient for indefinite use. 



By means of railways the lumber from these regions, either in its rough form or 

 manufactured for use, is now cheaply carried to distant points in the interior, and used 

 in regions where houses and fences could scarcely have been built had the materials been 

 brought by the old ways of land carriage. As the supplies of a once timbered region 

 begin to fail, the deficiency is made up from more distant points and equalized according 

 to the demand without much regard to space, and so long as there are regions within 

 reach of railways where materials can be found for supplying the trade, we shall not 

 realize the extent of the exhaustion until we nearly approach the end. If our railroads 

 equalize the supply, they are at the same time equalizing the ruin which will be felt with 

 equal weight in regions once supplied from their local woodlands, and in the prairie 

 regions that had none. 



In the older countries of continental Europe, necessity has long since taught pru- 

 dence in the care of their forests, and conservative measures have been devised and 

 matured, that deserve our careful study, although from the wide diff'erences that exist in 

 the organization of their governments, and in the tenure of property, we cannot apply 

 their systems of administration, however much we may profit from their methods of culti- 

 vation and management. 



Throughout the United States, and to a large extent in Canada, especially in the 

 Upper Province, the lands have been conveyed to private owners as their absolute pro- 

 perty, and without any conditions or reservations whatever as to its cultiv^ation or use. 

 Its owners may clear or plant trees, or any other crop, as they find it for their interest, 

 and with a prevailing public sentiment favouring the undisturbed enjoyment of property 

 by its owners there is not the slightest prospect that a law would ever be passed, or that it 

 could be enforced, for the compulsory reservation or planting of woodlands upon private 

 estates. The owners must see-it to their interest and profit to cultivate trees before any 

 plantations are made beyond such as may be undertaken for ornament or for a definite 

 use. If they feel the want of wood for fuel or fencing, or other uses, and find that it. 

 can be grown cheaper than it can be purchased, they will plant. In fact, the principle 

 that here applies is the same as in cultivating grain or fruits, with this marked difi'er- 

 ence, that the planter must wait a longer time for his returns, and of course must have 

 other means of support while his crop is growing. His estate, however, is all the time 

 gaining in value, so that if obliged to sell it he can at any time realize the returns from 

 his investment in value if not in kind. 



It would be well if he would forsee this need, and thus escape the realization of the 

 want which improvidence will be sure to bring. It must be the work of education every- 

 where, if we would awaken the public to a proper understanding of the importance of 

 this subject, and of the duties that each one owes to himself and to the future, in regard 

 to this great question of Forestry which we have assembled to discuss on this occasion. 



It is the part of true wisdom to look upon this beautiful earth, as held by us in 

 trust — it is, at best, only a life-lease that a man holds to the estate for which he holds an 

 absolute deed of possession — and it is our solemn duty to so manage this trust as not to 

 dissipate its value, or perhaps render it wholly incapable of restoration. 



