Canadian Forestry journal, September, 1919 



HATCHING TREES BY THE MILLION 



355 



By Custave C. Fiche, Chief of Forestry Service, Quebec. 



Splendid Results at Berthierville of Quebec's 

 Forward Policy in Reforestation — Trees 

 for Highways Too. 



The nursery of Berthierville was estabhshed 

 in 1908 by Hon. Mr. Turgeon, then Minister of 

 Lands and Forests, in view of furnishing plant- 

 ing material to the private owners of waste lands 

 and also to enable the government to make 

 practical demonstrations in reforestation. It 

 was the first provmcial nursery, it is the only one 

 yet devoted entirely to this purpose. At the 

 origin, it was a farm of 70 arpents which had 

 been abandoned for many years with the re- 

 sult that the buildings and the land were in a 

 very bad order; even the woodlot exhibited 

 evident signs of mismanagement. The first 

 years were devoted towards re-establishing 

 order throughout the property and to raise on 

 a small scale forest tree seedlings. 



On the 22nd of May, 1908, the first sowings 

 were done, and in the autumn we found that the 

 nursery contained a little over 200,000 plants 

 of which the white pine, the Scotch pine, the 

 Norway spruce, and the European larch formed 

 the bulk. I must say that, at first, the neigh- 

 boring farmers were very skeptical about the 

 success of our enterprise, but many of them 

 began during the second year to admit that 

 there was something in the idea which the Gov- 

 ernment had endeavored to propagate in the 

 province and very soon the nursery was, and is 

 still, the favorite spot where they bring their 

 visitors to see the great curiosity. 



O. (". riihe. ciiKi Fnn'.sicr ul' (Quebec. 



tribute to them a good deal of the success that 

 we have obtained so far. 



A Helpful Minister. 



It would have been impossible to carry on 

 our programme which meant to increase the pro- 

 duction more and more every year, in order to 

 To give my forestry students a practical ^°P^ ^'i^'^ t'le increasing demand for trees if 

 knowledge in reforestation, it was arranged that ^^ "^^ "ot obtained the continuous support 

 they would work two months each spring at ^^° "^'^ encouragement of the present Minister 

 the nursery. We must congratulate each class °' Lands and Forests, the Hon. Jules .Allard. 

 of the Laval Forest School for the good qualities ^^"<^' '"^-^ you know, has helped so much to the 

 that they have displayed during their stay here; development of a sound forest policy in this 

 indeed, it was very hard for these college boys piovmce. It was he who obtained for us each 

 to be put on the spade, to harrow or to weed y^^^ ''^^ necessary credits from the government 

 under the burning sun, but they accepted their :^"" ^^''^" ^'^^ sinews of war we were able to 

 instructions cheerfully and worked ten hours increase every year the area under cultivation, 

 per day, just as ordinary laborers, faithfully In 1910 some of the seedlings were bie 



and with great interest. I must, in justice, at- enough to be shipped, and we started the re 



