Merrier. — Protection in Quebec 9 



But if we believe that it is our duty to protect the game on 

 our territory, we believe also that it is our duty to work in con- 

 junction with our neighbors and to help them protect their own. 

 This is the reason why, during the last session of the Legislature, 

 I ha,d a special section inserted in the law which empowers me 

 not only to seize game taken illegally on the territory of the 

 Province of Quebec, but also game unlawfully killed or taken out- 

 side the province and brought in, and to send such game to the 

 proper authorities of the state or province where it was illegally 

 taken. 



This part of our law has already been put into operation with 

 two of our Canadian provinces and I am ready to work it out 

 with the State of Maine and any other state which may be 

 interested. 



The salaries of the fire rangers are paid by the lumbermen 

 who have acquired the right to operate in portions of the Crown 

 forests. Our forests, capable of producing saw logs, pulp wood, 

 etc., cover 130 millions of acres. Of these, six to seven millions 

 are in private hands, the balance being public property, though 

 the right to cut timber on 45 million acres has been let to lumber- 

 men. From these leases and from stumpage dues on timber cut 

 on these "limits, " as they are called, the province derives a large 

 revemie every year. 



The value of our standing timber has been conservatively 

 estimated at six hundred millions of dollars. The necessity for a 

 scientific management and efficient conservation of this valuable 

 domain inspired the Government of Sir Lomer Gouin in 1905 

 to take steps looking to the establishment of a skilled forestry 

 service. Two young men, who now head that service, were sent 

 to the Forestry School at Yale. After graduation they visited 

 the principal European forests, and organized the Forestry Service 

 in 1909, which was followed the next year by the opening of a 

 School of Forestry at the University of Laval, in Quebec. The 

 Forestry Service has charge of the forest rangers, and includes 

 thirty-three forestry engineers. Under its system of inspection 

 the wild lands of the province are classified as to their suitability 

 for agriculture or for forest growth. Waste lands and those 

 which have been stripped of trees and are unfit for agriculture, are 

 being planted with nursery stock. 



