Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1919 



2. Your second question as to the import- 

 ance of Forest Conservation is, if anything, 

 the more serious of the two. 



When Canada has 25 Millions! 



It is so easy to make sweeping generaliza- 

 tions from insufficient data and lack of care- 

 ful information. So especially have we been 

 led into error, I hope not fatal, in respect to 

 the immensity of our Canadian timber 

 resources. Are they inexhaustible? We have 

 too long gone on practically upon this 

 assumption and the assumption all along has 

 been a false one. And so we have cut and 

 slashed, culled the choice and burned or 

 bunched the rest to dry for kindling new for- 

 est fires, and suffered tremendous destruction 

 by both wasteful cutting methods and by pre- 

 ventable fire waste, until to-day those who 

 think and know are pessimistic as to our 

 available supplies of merchantable timber. 

 And in reafforestation we have done nothing. 



Canada has 8,000,000 people, who have so 

 far enjoyed easy facilities for lumber sup- 

 pHes. But when Canada has 25,000,000 

 people with their wants, which will certainly 

 not be less than ours of this generation, what 

 will be the sources of supply? 



We must provide for our own needs here 

 and now; we must furnish in part from our 

 comparative abundance what our devastated 

 allied countries need to reconstruct and we 

 must, as trustees of the future, keep sufficient 

 for our growmg nation. 



Must Improve Our Methods. 



The argument need be pressed no further. 

 The conclusions seem obvious. Canada must 

 supervise and improve her methods of cuttmg 

 and very possibly limit the yearly cut in the 

 interests of future generations. Canada must 

 protect her forests from fire by the wise ex- 

 penditure of money in guarding and super- 

 vision. Canada must set herself diligently 

 to the task of afforestation. 



If these conclusions are just, can we not 

 all get together. Governments, municipalities, 

 timber owners, and all thoughtful units of 

 citizenship, to conserve and perpetuate so 

 indispensable and valuable an asset of the 

 nation? 



Yours sincerely, 



GEORGE E. FOSTER. 



Ottawa, Nov. 8, 1918. 



CANADIAN LUMBERJACKS WIN. 



Novel features were introduced when forestry 

 troops from Canada, Australia, New Zealand 

 and Great Britain held an athletic and field day 

 "somewhere in France." There were 17 com- 

 panies represented, 12 of whom were from one 

 district group of the Canadian Foserty Corps. 

 There were contests in cross-cut sawing, log 

 loading, tree felling and log rolling, on land and 

 in water. The Canadians won four of these five 

 contests. 



In the cross-cut sawing two experienced lum- 

 berjacks, who formerly worked in the neighbor- 

 hood of the Ottawa River, finished the job in 

 thirty seconds. The second and third prizes were 

 won by men from two other Canadian compan- 

 ies. Speed and neatness were the qualifications 

 required in the log loading. Three Canadian 

 units were winners, the first doing the job in five 

 minutes, twenty seconds. 



A French-Canadian won the log rolling in 

 water easily. He was an experienced river 

 driver from lower Quebec, for he quickly put 

 most of his opponents off the logs into the water. 

 The second prize winner was a British Colum- 

 bian. Three Canadians won the log rolling on 

 land. 



The director of timber operations in France 

 gave a cup to the company winning the most 

 points during the day. This cup went to No. 2 

 Canadian company, with nineteen. A private in 

 No. 26 company, Canadian Forestry Corps, won 

 the gold medal donated by the A.D.S.C, Can- 

 adian detached forces. Two men in these same 

 companiese made an equal number of points in 

 the athletic events and technical contests, and 

 so the British army forestry officer who offered a 

 cup for the man making the best aggregate, 

 agreed to give each of the two men a cup. 



There are 25,000.000 acres in the forest 

 reserves in the prairie provinces and the 'railway 

 belt' of British Columbia. The proportion of 

 forest reserves to total area is very low. in com- 

 parison with the ratio regarded as 'good busi- 

 ness' by progressive European states. 



About $40,000,000 a year is paid in wages to 

 workers in the forest industries. 



The United Stales possesses about four limes 

 as much timber as Canada. 



