TWELFTH ORDINARY MEETING. 109 
TWELFTH ORDINARY MEETING. 
The Twelfth Ordinary Meeting of the Session 1884-’85, was 
held on Saturday, January 31st, 1885, the President in the 
Chair. 
The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed. 
W. Boultbee, Esq. C. E.. was elected a member of the 
Institute. 
The following list of donations and exchanges was read : 
1. Report on the Necessity of Preserving and Replanting Forests, by R. W. 
Phipps, Esq. 
2. Monthly Health Bulletins of Ontario, for October and November, 1884. 
3. Science, Vol. V., No. 103, January 23rd, 1885. 
4 
. Report of the Superintendent of the United States Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, for the year ending with June, 1883. 
5. Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. 16, Nos. 7-12, July to December, 
1884. 
6. Papers on Time-Reckoning, and the Selection of a Prime Meridian, by 
Sandford Fleming, C.M.G. 
Mr. R. W. Phipps read a paper on 
FORESTRY, AND THE NECKSSITY FOR ITS PRACTICE 
IN ONTARIO. 
I must beg the attention of my hearers for a short space to a sub- 
ject which is not uninteresting, and is very important—the rapid 
and injurious deforesting of Ontario and the means whereby it can 
best be checked. When, not so long since, the white men came first 
hither, the forest wealth of all this region was immense. Could it 
have stood till now there would have been no difficulty in rapidly 
selling timber enough to build half-a-dozen Pacific Railways had we 
so chosen to invest our funds. But the settlers came; they needed 
sustenance ; they could not eat the trees ; they could not sell them, 
and they burned them. But unfortunately, much was uselessly 
burned. Much land so cleared had far better have remained un: 
cleared until to-day. J have seen near Toronto great heaps of clear 
pine, worth now $40 a thousand, burned to uncover poor land 
which gave but a crop or two, and ever since but very poor pasture. 
I have seen out west where great fields had been in walnut, two or 
