Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1919 



15 



bilities are in store for industries along these 

 lines. 



As pointed out by the Director of Forestry in 

 an address before the Canadian Forestry Asso- 

 ciation at Winnipeg in 1913, Manitoba may yet 

 become a great forest province. The informa- 

 tion in this connection given in the following 

 paragraphs are obtained from this source. 



Northern Manitoba offers an attractive field 

 for the practice of commercial forestry. Several 

 European countries, with similar conditions in 

 respect to geological and climatic conditions 

 have made great successes of such ventures, and 

 are deriving handsome revenues from them. 

 Investigations have shown that the rate of tree 

 growth in Manitoba compares favourably with 

 that in Germany, France, and Sweden. 



Sweden's Example. 



The case of Sweden might be cited as an 

 indication of what could be hoped for in Mani- 

 toba by following a suitable forest policy. Swe- 

 den is a northern country having similar con- 

 ditions of climate and soil, much of it being 



underlain by a granite formation like that of the 

 La-rcr.tian area. It is about equal in extent to 

 Northern Manitoba, its total area being 1 72,876 

 square miles as compared with Northern Mani- 

 toba's area of 1 78,100 square miles. 



By following a systematic forestry policy dur- 

 ing recent years Sweden has placed the industry 

 on a profitable basis, and is now receiving a 

 national revenue and providing employment for 

 thousands of her people, at the same time pro- 

 viding for replenishing the forest supply in pro- 

 portion to the consumption. In 1905 her wood- 

 working industries included 1 ,370 saw-mills, 1 38 

 pulp-mills and 20 match factories, giving em- 

 ploymen to 56,424 people. The government 

 forests themselves employed a staff of 971 

 rangers and officials, and yet yielded a net 

 revenue of $2,122,625. The total values of her 

 forest products for the year were $107,000,000. 

 Comparing this with Manitoba's products of less 

 than one million dollars but with natural con- 

 ditions as favourable, it cannot but suggest the 

 great opportunities that await the province in 

 commercial forestry. 



RECONSTRUCTION!- AND THE CALL OF THE FORESTS! 



By FAl-a^ood Wilson, Chief Forester, 

 The Laurentide Company, Crandmere, P.Q. 



A Challenge to Canadians to Face Critical 



National Problems with Courage 



and Daring. 



The effort necessary to win the war has 

 stimulated all the nations engaged to a pitch of 

 effort never before approached. There has been 

 a great awakening and quickening of life both 

 material and spiritual. Old formulas have gone 

 by the board, the old catch words by which the 

 politicians have fooled us have been exposed in 

 all their pitiful nakedness and old abuses which 

 have been tolerated for centuries have been 

 swept away in a day. For some time to come 

 it is going to be harder to fool the people than 

 ever before. We have seen the terrible burden 

 of alcohol almost removed, the nationalization 

 and rational handling of a few of the businesses 

 which make modern Hfe possible, the apportion- 

 ment of food and coal so that all could have 

 their share, and the curtailment of luxuries. 

 Why can we not continue to be sensible and 



patriotic now that the war is over? A very 

 small fraction of the money which has been 

 spent for the war would see the country covered 

 with good schools, with good roads, and our 

 people instructed in the proper care of their 

 health by competent men under a Minister of 

 Public Health. If it was necessary to train our 

 men and to put them in the pink of condition to 

 win the war, why is it not far more important to 

 bring up our children with sound minds and well 

 trained bodies fitted to take their place in our 

 great country and not left to grow up hap- 

 hazard, half starved, uneducated and untrained, 

 some of them condemned to fill the jails, the 

 asylums and the iirolhels. When our men come 

 back from the front they are going to ask some 

 of these questions and they are going to insist 

 that they be answered in the affirmative. The 



