Progress in Forestry. 



77 



4. Organization on a strictly non- 

 partisan basis, of a trained and effi- 

 cient forest service personnel, to ad- 

 minister and supervise, and carry 

 out, all needed field and office work. 



5. Provision and equipment for in- 

 vestigation and research work, deal- 

 ing with forest problems of every de- 

 scription, and methods of solving 

 them. 



6. Legislation — Whatever may be 

 required to give full effect to the will 

 of the people regarding the manage- 

 ment of their forest lands, and to in- 

 sure uniform requirements from 

 every forest user. 



Present Conditions. 



'Wise use, wisely regulated,' is the 

 essence of conservation, and its twin 

 axioms as applied to Canada's renew- 

 able resources are, 'Every acre a pro- 

 ducing acre,' and 'Every acre to its 

 best use. ' This highly practical ideal 

 demands as its first step, land classi- 

 fication, and I am glad to say that the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch is under- 

 taking vigorously this most important 

 work of determining just what por- 

 tions of these Prairie Provinces are 

 primarily adapted to the production 

 of wood crops, rather than food crops. 

 During the past three seasons many 

 survey parties in different parts of 

 the West have been engaged in this 

 work, and as a result of their work 

 approximately ten million acres have 

 been classified as forest land and re- 

 commended for inclusion in the per- 

 manent forest reserves, or national 

 forests, as I prefer to call them. This 

 addition to the older reserves will give 

 you a total of some thirty-five thou- 

 sand square miles, which, however, is 

 only a good start in relation to the 

 whole area of the public lands best 

 adapted to forest purposes. 



While it is true that rough timber 

 land has acre for acre, a lower pro- 

 ducing power than farm land, still the 

 enormous area of this non-agricul- 

 tural land in Canada puts it in the 

 front rank of her natural resources. 

 Dr. Fernow's survey of Nova Scotia 



classes nearly eighty per cent, of that 

 Province as absolute forest land. Brit- 

 ish Columbia has at least as great a 

 proportion, while in Ontario and Que- 

 bec probably two-thirds is non-agri- 

 cultural in character. In 1910 I ex- 

 amined eight thousand square miles 

 of the country north east of Le Pas, 

 now a part of Manitoba, and eighty 

 per cent, of this territory is absolute 

 forest land. Taking Canada as a 

 whole probably fifty per cent, of her 

 cropable surface is chiefly suited for 

 growing timber. 



Are you satisfied that as a people Can- 

 adians are giving enough attention to 

 this half of the national farm ? Upon 

 its wise management must rest the 

 future prosperity of the lumber in- 

 dustry. The forests in controlling 

 water supply and water power are de- 

 stined more and more largely to affect 

 the welfare of farmers and manufac- 

 turers. 



Educational Work. 



Grain and stock farmers are be- 

 ing given a ten million dollar grant to 

 assist in their work, but lumbermen 

 (our tree farmers) are given little or 

 no help to discover the laws which 

 govern a maximum production of 

 their crop. Farm crops require only 

 from fifty to one hundred days to ma- 

 ture; timber crops require from fifty 

 to one hundred years. In this long 

 time element rests the fundamental 

 difference between agriculture and 

 silviculture, between farm crops and 

 timber crops. In general the Govern- 

 ment is the only institution long lived 

 enough to practise successful forestry. 



TnH Control of Licensed Operators 

 All are agreed that the Government 

 should have absolute control of all 

 lu inhering operations on Crown lands, 

 iiichiding of course, the licensed berth 

 lands, simply to insure that your for- 

 ests shall be cropped, rather than 

 mined. Yet it is to-day a most dis- 

 c|ui(,'ting fact, that on all that part of 

 the forest domain now held by 

 licensees, the public has actually per- 

 mitted all effective control to lapse 



