Canadian Forestry Journal, Ma\), 1919 



207 



A PROPOSED BRITISH EMPIRE FORESTRY ASSOC. 



Would Act as a Link Between Progressive 



Societies in all Parts of British 



Dominions 



Some months ago, the Secretary of the Cana- 

 dian Forestry Association offered the suggestion 

 that the forestry activities of all parts of the 

 British Empire might well be brought into closer 

 relationship by the forming of a "British Em- 

 pire Forestry Association". The proposal was 

 submitted to leaders of the forestry movement in 

 Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South 

 Africa and India. The hearty reception ac- 

 corded to it may be guaged by the excerpts 

 from letters printed herewith. Other letters will 

 appear in the June issue. 



Although the Anglo Saxon peoples have been 

 the last to admit forestry to its rightful estate, 

 one would be a wilful reactionary to deny that 

 recent years have worked remarkable changes. 

 Forestry is coming into its own. The painful 

 lessons of war experience have accomplished 

 more for forestry in the British Isles than a half- 

 century of warning and advice. Much the same 

 is true of Australia and New Zealand and Can- 

 ada. The era of the explosive orator and his 

 "unscratched resources" has given place to the 

 counting machine and its cool recital of facts 

 and figures. From the Rocky Mountains to the 

 Atlant c, Canada has been spending forest cap- 

 ital without any concern for the next holder 

 of the purse. To realise cash from tree trunks 

 has been the extent of our business science and 

 even at this hour is mostly the measure of our 

 forestry practice. The story of similar public 

 attitudes and action is monotonously applicable 

 to nearly every part of the British Empire ex- 

 cept India. 



Applying the X-Ray. 



This is the day of X-Ray examinations. Be- 

 cause a policy IS old and in the good graces of 

 a few ru:ty administrators or a commercial or 

 pohtical sect is almost the best reason why it 

 should be put on the operating table and have 

 its anatomy photographed. Certainly the peo- 

 l^le of the overseas Dominions who are yet legal 

 I masters of their forests are in a mood to examine 

 ' the merits of a forestry programme in its re- 



lation to the public interest. There has never 

 been any question that an intelligently guided 

 forestry policy is the keystone of state manage- 

 ment. The great trouble appears to have been 

 that a people habituated to mere exploitation 

 and sudden profits in their private experience has 

 to pass through some such metamorphosis as the 

 war provided in order to appreciate the meaning 

 of foresight and patience. All our public issues 

 bearing on elections have been tied to im- 

 mediate causes and immediate consequences. 

 Forestry cannot be compensated in a five-year 

 calendar. We have been treated to scandals 

 of waterless canals, sawdust wharves, "plunder- 

 ing the treasury" and so forth, because these 

 things are pictorial and easily visualized by pol- 

 itical and economic children. Nothing but the 

 solemn times of 1914-19 could have made Cana- 

 dians willing, as they are to-day unquestionably 

 willing, to study national economics and sit 

 humbly in the school-room of international and 

 historical experience. Because of this changed 

 attitu-'e, because of this new patriotism that 

 waT^ts facts and perspective in place of tosh, the 

 swift d'^velopment of forestry science in Canada 

 is to be regarded as one of the certainties in the 

 new order. 



The New Association. 



The British Empire Forestry Association, 

 which is yet unformed and only in a stage of 

 discussion, would aim to relate the forestry 

 movement in all sections of the Empire. It 

 would act as a clearing house for mutually- 

 valuable information and would place at the 

 disposal of all foresters whether in the British 

 Isles or Canada or Burma news of common prob- 

 lems and solutions. 



More than this, it would bear a very im- 

 portant relation to the development of timber 

 trade within the Empire. For example, the 

 amount of misconception regarding Canadian 

 woods in the British Isles and .Australia and New- 

 Zealand, the lack of knowledge of important 

 Australian woods in other parts of the Empire, 



