Canadian Forestry Journal, October, 1919 



391 



f 



Threading seedlings into planting boards in portable cabins. 



WORKING FOR POSTERITY 



By Allan Donnell, of the Editorial Staff of the Commission of Conservation. 



Through Private Initiative a Start Has Been Made in 

 Regeneration of Eastern Canadian Forests 



Making posterity the goat was long a habit 

 of municipal, provincial and federal govern- 

 ments in Canada. It provided an easy way 

 for them to get utilities that they could not pay 

 for and it prevented troublesome criticism by 

 those who did the voting. Of couise it was 

 impossible to obtam posterity's assent to this 

 practice, but that little democratic principle 

 caused almost no concern. Surely a dutiful 

 posterity would feel honored in being called 

 upon to assist its forebears in obtaining luxuries 

 that were beyond their means and, besides, if 

 the former were lucky, it might have the use 

 of the second-hand utilities in due time. So it 

 became a common thing when a new street was 

 neemed necessary to charge a generous portion 

 of the cost of posterity. Or if political con- 

 siderations suggested a railway through an un- 

 settled section of country, or across the con- 

 tinent, posterity was blunderbussed into helping 



to pay for it. Perhaps this delightful fashion 

 of "passing the buck" might have been "put 

 over" had not posterity's most honorable an- 

 cestors exploited and pillaged vast portions of 

 the virgin resources which would be required 

 to liquidate the debts of a prodigal past. For- 

 ests were slashed and burned with a reckless- 

 ness that made Nero's little show look like a 

 nickel movie. Inefficient farming resulted in 

 the literal mining of the fertility from hundreds 

 of thousands of rich farm lands. Inadequate 

 methods of mining minerals and coal frequently 

 led to the permanent loss of millions of dollars 

 worth of these products. Even the fish of the 

 sea and inland waters were wasted by the scow- 

 load because of insufficient markets, or because 

 certain species did not appeal to the epicurean 

 tastes of generations of improvident spend- 

 thrifts. 



