262 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vo.. VEE: 
conditions of forest wealth, and other economical questions relating to 
our daily life and the welfare of the country at large—conditions resulting 
from the policy which must be changed if we are to enjoy our existence 
at all. 
We have no doubt that when the governments of this continent 
are fully seized of the great value of preserving our forests, some practical 
policy will be adopted to preserve what is left and to restore partially 
what has been denuded or destroyed. I may be pardoned if I state in pass- 
ing that as far back as the seventies, I frequently wrote articles then 
calling attention to the suicidal policy of the people in destroying the 
woods—pointing out as far as I could the criminal folly almost of such | 
practice that we were killing the goose that laid the golden egg by such 
gross wastefulness—and that we should have then a department that 
would make it its business to educate the public to preserve and restore 
by replanting for the future the woods it had taken centuries of the past 
to produce. I am sorry to say my warnings were not heeded and my 
voice along with many others was literally as of those erying in the wilder- 
ness. Nor can you wonder very much at the indifference displayed— 
one had only to go to the Queen’s Wharf and see acres of timber being 
made in great rafts to be towed down the lake—every train steaming ~ 
down from Barrie, Lefroy, and Gravenhurst, bearing its continuous 
burden of huge squared logs or cordwood—‘‘Such abundance! such 
opulence of forest wealth! what? ever be scarce, ever be dear, what 
nonsense!’’ Now we are striving to repair our extravagance by replanting, 
and we must work hard and work quickly for we are not yet experienced 
foresters. Cutting down woods, thinning and replanting and how to 
produce forests on a business basis come by experience. We know how 
to destroy, do we know how to restore? The only answer to this is to 
replant and here we can appreciate the lines of the poet, Joaquin Miller, 
when he says: . 
‘“God gave us Mother Earth”’ full dressed 
In robes of green of ample fold; 
We tore the green robes off her breast, 
We sold our Mother’s robes for gold, 
We sold her garments fair, and she 
Lies shamed and bleeding at our feet. 
In penitence we plant a tree— 
We plant a tree and call it meet.” 
And here we may pay tribute toa class of men who in many cases 
are regarded with scorn and open displeasure by some, while others are 
just as grateful to them as possibly they should be for benefits received. 
I mean the agents who act for the nurserymen with the public. 
