122 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1919 



PICTURES THAT TELL A HUMAN STORY 



In the photograph at the top of the page may be seen the consequences of stripping 

 timber from land that cannot possibly be utilized for farming. However, an innocent 

 farmer has made the attempt. After expending time and labor and capital he has been 

 driven away by poverty. The land lies bare and useless. It will remain part of Canada's 

 vast "No Man's Land" until replanted with trees. (From a photograph taken in North 

 Saskatchewan). 



The lower picture, taken in New Brunswick, illustrates another kind of treatment 

 for non-agricultural soils. It is practically the same character as that in the top picture, 

 but note the contrast in the service it renders the community. Here we find part of a greai 

 army of busy lumbermen. They are helping to extract from such Canad'an ar?a3 

 $200,000,000 worth of forest products each twelvemonth. The land is useless for farming, 

 but of splendid use for timber crops, a great power in employing men and meeting the 

 daily needs of the nation. 



The top picture need never have been made possible if classification of lands had 

 preceded settlement. To the farmer belongs every acre that will produce crops. That 

 leaves about two-thirds of the Dominion unfit for farms, a large portion of which truly 

 belongs to forest production for all the centuries to come. 



TAKE STOCK FIRST— THEN MAKE PLANS! 



Dr. Howe, of the Faculty of Forestry, Tor- 

 onto University, speaking at the Montreal meet- 

 ing of the Canadian Forestry Association, said: 



"The only way we can ever know just how 

 much spruce we may have for pulpv/ood is by 

 taking an actual survey of the forests, to find 

 out what conditions really are, over a sufficient 

 area, so that our conclusions may be as nearly 

 accurate as possible. We know that at the 

 present time all our figures are more or less 

 guess work. They may be right, they may hit 

 the mark, but some of us believe they are other- 

 wise, and that the estimates are exaggerated; 

 but as foresters we do not care to make esti- 

 mates until we have seen, or until we have 

 studied a sufficient amount of the country, so 

 that we have the data to prove the same. All I 

 can say is that my knowledge of the spruce 

 coming in is limited to the St. Lawrence valley, 

 and wherever we have the spruce mixed with 

 hardwood, maple and birch, we will be very 

 much disappointed thirty years from now when 

 we go back there and expect to cut a large crop 

 of spruce. 



I do not believe that on the area which I 

 have studied, that in thirty years there will be 



enough spruce on those lands to pay for the 

 lumbering. The great need at the present time 

 in the Province of Quebec, and the whole of the 

 Dominion of Canada is a forestry survey, an 

 actual survey estimating as near as possible th-? 

 standing timber we have here, so that we can 

 make a reliable estimate of the future produc- 

 tion." 



THE ROAD OF DESTINY. 



"Canada's commercial destiny is chained to 

 the natural resources; the land, the forests, the 

 mines, fisheries and water powers. Superficial 

 activities (with the dice loaded against us from 

 the outset) have cost us heavily in wasted time, 

 wasted legislation, wasted public money. The 

 forest, of course, is a poor advertiser; it can- 

 not speak for itself. And many of those who 

 did speak for it had far better have held their 

 tongues. Nothing has damaged forest conser- 

 vation so deeply as the circus-poster claim of 

 'inexhaustible resources' — a boast ironically il- 

 lustrated by vast tracts of pillaged timberlands." 

 — From "The Forests of Canada." 



