88 WESTERN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Forestry, 



BY E. F. STEPHENSON. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : I am much pleased at 

 receiving- your invitation to read a paper on "Forestry" at 

 your annual meeting-, and, while appreciating- the compliment 

 you have paid me, I feel there are some aspects of this im- 

 portant subject which could be more ably dealt with by other 

 members of this Society. If, however, any effort of mine 

 will conduce to awaken a wider interest in forestry and 

 stimulate the public to a study of the subject and apprecia- 

 tion of its great importance, it will be another proof of the 

 benefit arising- out of this org-anization. 



The g-overnment, fully recog-nizing their responsibility 

 to the public, have taken the initiative in the protection of 

 our forests ; but while the general public remain indifferent 

 to the subject and fail to appreciate its importance, any regu- 

 lations which the government may make for the conservation 

 and maintenance of the timber supply, must, in the nature of 

 things, fail of its intention. It is to this aspect of the question, 

 I suppose, that the efforts of the Society are to be directed. 



It may not be out of place, however, to state briefly what 

 has already been done by the government in the direction 

 named. All lands valuable for timber are being reserved 

 from sale and settlement ; and where timber grows in heavy 

 belts, such as in the Riding Mountains, the Turtle Moun- 

 tains, the Moose Mountain and the belt of timber known as the 

 "Spruce Wood," South of Carberry, permanent timber 

 reserves have been established. The area comprised within 

 the reserves selected is upwards of 1,500,000 acres. They 

 are in charge of competent bush rangers, who will shortly be 

 engaged in laying out a system of fire guards, to be cut out 

 during the coming spring and summer. Nature has made it 



