Canadian Forestry Journal, Januar}), 1919 



world has been made safe politically, now it 

 must be made safe economically. 



Great Enterprises Ahead. 



The great lesson of this war is the necessity 

 for careful planning of all operations and their 

 correlation. The Japanese in the Russo-Japan- 

 ese war showed how sickness among the troops 

 could be prevented by careful planning. The 

 Germans showed what a definite national aim 

 and planning can do for a country and their 

 detailed plans and preparations almost won the 

 war at the first rush. The fact that their aim 

 was a wicked one defeated them. It was only 

 when the Allies settled down to coordinated 

 operations under a single head, when they had 

 learned to plan ahead for every possible con- 

 tingency, that the war was won. Remember 

 how our attacks were planned in the most 

 mniute detail. This system should now be 

 employed to make our country the best m the 

 world. We must choose a high aim, to make 

 Canada in every respect a truly great nation. 



We must plan first of all for a better educa- 

 tional system. Our present one is inadequate 

 and antiquated, our teachers paid little better 

 than day laborers. We must plan for better 

 housmg and hygienic conditionos so that our 

 future citizens may grow up sound and healthy 

 men and women. We must teach them their 

 duties as citizens so that they may understand 

 and appreciate their part and duty in our de- 

 velopment. 



We must plan for good roads which will make 

 it possible for the children in rural commuHties 

 to take proper advantage of the schools and the 

 farmers to get their produce to market and keep 

 in touch with the outside world. 



State Contrcl Esses^tial. 



One of the questions which has been waiting 

 for a sensible settlement is that of the care of 

 the greatest of our national resources, our 

 forests. We must face and settle this question 

 at once. We must see that our forests are 

 secured from, the fate which befell those of the 

 United States and guard them, by keeping them 

 in the hands of the Governments. The time 

 required for the growth of trees makes it impera- 

 tive that something should be done at once and 

 that the authority managing them should have 

 a definite policy which shall be continuous. We 

 need land classification so that non-agricultural 

 lands shall not be opened to settlement. Where 

 they have been settled or where settlement has 

 been tried we see m.isery and squalor, illiteracy 

 and the abandoned farm. We must have ade- 

 quate fire protection so that carelessness cannot 



wipe out millions of dollars worth of irreplacdble 

 timber in a day or so. We must have proper 

 care in cutting so that our supply will be con- 

 tinuous and we must have replanting so that the 

 increasing needs of the future will be taken 

 care of. 



A Work for Government Services. 



Had it not been for the foresight and carefully 

 worked out plans of the French Foresters in 

 planting up their waste lands and keeping up 

 their supply of timber we should in all probabil- 

 ity have lost the war, as there were not enough 

 ships to take over the huge amounts necessary. 

 The planting of the Landes district in France 

 took a lot of courage and entailed the expendi- 

 ture of millions of dollars but it has paid finan- 

 cially and in the time of need helped to save 

 France. 



A scheme is now on foot to reforest the British 

 Isles which will require the expenditure of some 

 fifty million dollars but which will ultimately 

 pay back large revenues and go a long way to- 

 ward making England independent of the out- 

 side world for a large part of her timber and, in 

 case of another war, give her all that she would 

 need. 



Here in Canada we need some sort of definite 

 policy for our forests. Our Government Services 

 do little but administrative work and are letting 

 the future pretty well take care of itself. Now 

 that the fire hazard has been reduced by better 

 protection methods, it is high time that plans for 

 the proper use and continuation of our forests 

 should be made and put into execution. 

 Employment for Soldiers. 



Our soldiers who have been fighting abroad 

 have been living out of doors with plenty of 

 exercise and lots of action ; it will be very hard 

 for many of them to return to shops, factories 

 and offices and our forests offer ideal employ- 

 ment for them, good physical work in the open, 

 the constant change of scene which nature 

 offers, and work which is fascinating and which 

 has a high end in view. The kind of work is 

 especially valuable for those who have been 

 shell shocked or gassed and there are many 

 kinds of work which can be carried on by those 

 who have been wounded. Many of the returned 

 flying men will be able to find work in the forest 

 protection services where they can engage in 

 patrol work and mapping. The large sections 

 of this Dominion now uncharted can in a few 

 years by means of flying boats and moving 

 picture cameras be completely and accurately 

 mapped. Not only that but the photographs so 

 taken will give us at once the areas and kinds 



