22 PROTECTION OF PLANTS, 1921-22 



rot infestations, the relations of these diseases to the age of the host species, 

 to the specific resistance of the host and to environmental factors. And here 

 we would include such topics as soil characters, crowding, mixed stands and 

 cHmate, all of which have a direct bearing on the relation of heart and butt 

 diseases to yield and hence to the questions of reforestation and harvesting. 

 Such experimentation moves slowly. True, but it will be readily conceded 

 that the exploitation and neglect of half a century cannot be repaired in a day. 

 The solution of the problems of our unregulated and unscientifically treated 

 forests will demand time, patience and a force of trained investigators. But 

 every problem solved will be of value in the administration of and will contribute 

 to the welfare of the forests of to-day and to-morrow. 



OUR FOREST CONDITIONS AND SOME OF OUR FORESTRY PROB- 

 LEMS 



By Dr. C. D. Howe, Toronto University. 



A detached observer, looking upon the affairs of men, would note the occur- 

 rence of definite periods of confidence and fear, boastfulness and humility, 

 periods of enthusiasm and high endeavor, periods of depression and futilit3^ 

 These periods recur quite regularly' in cycles; they recur in cycles in the indi- 

 vidual's life and in the nation's life. The causes are not well understood: 

 they may be environmental or the^^ may be psychological or both. Too often, 

 they may be chiefly psychological. Since the psychology of the industries 

 is largely the psychology of the people concerned in them, they, too, exhibit 

 cycles of buoyancy and flaccidity. of prosperitj^ and poverty, cycles of aggres- 

 siveness and timidity. 



With these general observations in mind, let us turn to our wood-using 

 industries, or rather the sources of supply of raw materials for those industries, 

 the forp-">ts, and inquire through what periods the attitude of the people, the 

 national psychology, has passed with regard to them. 



In the first place, we are all familiar with the fact that the forests must 

 give wa}' to agriculture. In the early daj^s, the pioneer and the forest were 

 enemies because, at that time, the settler could not get the necessities of life 

 from the forest, but the products of the farm were entirely sufficient for his 

 simple wants. The cjuickest and easiest way to get rid of the forest was to 

 burn it. What a story it has been! What a record of achievement! When one 

 beholds the wide rolling uplands of Ontario, the fertile meadows of the St. 

 Lawrence valley, and the gTcen fields in the provinces down by the sea, he is 

 lost in admiration for the sturdj^ pioneer who destroyed the forest to create 

 the farm. You know ours is a vast country with a small population and, 

 therefore, we are still in the pioneering stage. AVithin less than 100 miles of 

 Montreal one still finds the settler clearing the forest to make a farm. Within 



