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timber as much as possiVjle in the latter ; second, that on Government lands the law as 

 now applied to pine should extend to spruce and tamarac, i. e., no tree less than twelve 

 inches at the stump should be cut down for commercial purposes ; third, the greatest 

 dread of the lumberman, fire, should be more closely watched In my thirty years of 

 experience, I have come to the conclusion, that the most of the Vjush fires has been the 

 work of fishermen and hunters, who not only destroy valuable timVjer the property of the 

 public, Vjut also the shanty and material of the lumbermen ; in view of this being the case, 

 I would suggest that the Government who is most interested in the preservation of forests, 

 employ as many men as are thought necessary in each agency, to look after and trace the 

 origin of fires on the public domain, giving them the power to take evidence so as to bring 

 to punishment those who either wantonly or carlessly set fire to or cause the destruction 

 of such valuable property. I would also suggest that no lands unfit for settlement should 

 be offered for sale ; from what I have seen in my travels on the rivers running into the 

 St. Lawrence and the Ottawa from the north, a very large proportion of such territory is 

 of this character. In selling lands to settlers I would make it a condition of sale, that 

 twenty acres in every hundred should be given free, and that it should be forever kept as 

 woodland. I would say in conclusion that the lumberman is not the vandal some would 

 have him appear to be ; he is usually the forerunner of settlement ; on most of our rivers 

 he makes the first roads into the woods ; his de.serted .shanties and stables often become 

 the home of the pioneer farmer, furnishing employment for the young men and their 

 teams, and giving the Vjest market in Canada for his hay and oats, for which he usually 

 gets twice as much at his door as he would down at the front. Neither does he look 

 on trees as enemies, nor cut them down for sport. To the uninitiated travelling through 

 the woods, after the shantymen have taken all they think worth taking, he would hardly 

 notice that the chopper had been there, except for .seeing an occasional stump, a few chips 

 or a top of a tree, the great bulk of the timber remaining to attract the rain, hold back 

 the water in its natural beds, and to prevent sudden rises and falls in the rivers, which 

 oftentimes cause serious damage by overflowing the banks or becoming so low that they 

 refuse to do the work they once performed with ease, and the miller sighs for the friend 

 that .so fully helped him. To avoid the.se troubles and have our country remain well 

 wooded for many year.s, it is but necessary to give the trees indigenous to our country 

 leave to grow, and there will be no neces.sity to plant. I have no doubt but that much 

 of the land that has Vjeen denuded of its timber, would in a few years be covered with a 

 spontaneous growth of wood and so prevent our country from becoming an arid waste, 

 utilizing only that portion of it that can be profitably worked. 



While we have not yet experienced the full climatic effects, which eventually arise 

 from denudation carried ton far, we may draw lessons of warning from other countries 

 and amend our course before it is too late. 



In our report on the Cincinnati meeting is embodied a paper setting forth in a very 

 forcible manner the results of extreme denudation in other countries. The following 

 abstract of a paper read at the Cincinnati meeting by the Hon. David H. Bailey, late 

 Consul-General of the United States for China, resident at Shangai, sets forth the 

 droughts, famines, and floods of that country resulting from deforestation. 



DROUGHTS, FLOODS, AND FAMINE IN CHINA, 

 By Hon. David H. Bailey. 



It is generally admitted, he said, by foreigners who have travelled or resided in 

 China, that the ignorance of the people and the apathy of their rulers have resulted in the 

 denudation of their forests over vast tracts of country in many provinces of that exten- 

 sive empire. To removal of the trees and that herVjage which should retain the moisture 

 necessary for the constant fertilization of the .soil may be traced, in a large degree, the 

 many appalling droughts and devastating floods which have decimated the people and in- 

 undated the country. The tables accompanying[this paper, of the droughts and floods 



