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Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920 



PUBLIC MANAGEMENT OF FORESTS. 



This whole question of management of for- 

 ests for a sustained yield and for the good of 

 the country at large cannot, however, be left 

 to private or corporation effort. Smce the for- 

 ests actually belong to the Dominion and Pro- 

 vincial governments, it is their plain duty to 

 manage them properly. Then, too, the long 

 term investment required, the length of time 

 necessary to raise a crop of trees, the low rate 

 of interest which must be charged against the 

 principal invested, require that such work and 

 management must be undertaken by the only 

 certain long-lived agency capable of such work 

 — the government. In all the provinces a large 



part of the general expenses of government are 

 taken out of revenues, and in no instance is a 

 reasonable or properly adequate sum bemg used 

 in the upkeep and perpetuation of the property. 

 Our legislators and administrators are beginning 

 to realize the situation, and much progress has 

 been made in the past five years. We are far 

 ahead of the United States, but there is much 

 need of further progress and in this work both 

 tlie governments and the public can be assured 

 of the broad-minded and pubhc-spirited at- 

 titude of the pulp and paper industry and can 

 be assured that it will co-operate in every way 

 to develop a forest policy which will place Can- 

 ada on a firm and solid basis as the greatest 

 pulp and paper producing country in the world. 



FUNDAMENTAL COMMONPLACES IN FORESTRY 



By Dr. B. E. Fernorv, Dean Emeritus of the Faculty of Forestry, 

 University of Toronto. 



1. Forestry the growing of wood crops as 

 a business — is based upon the presumption that 

 wood will always be a necessary raw material 

 in our civilization and that its present uses and 

 methods of use will continue. It is a specula- 

 tion, in futures. Perhaps we can learn in the 

 future new uses for wood which will open up 

 new resources not yet known. It may be pos- 

 sible, for instance, to grind up woods from the 

 tropical forests and recompose them into new 

 products. 



2. Forestry as a business requires a small 

 amount of labor, a large amount of capital and 

 a long time for its products to mature. This 

 last requirement distinguishes it from all other 

 industries. It involves compound interest cal- 

 culations — speculations for a long distant fu- 

 ture. The time element alone means a specu- 

 lation in compound interest. 



LARGE AREAS ESSENTIAL. 



3. Forestry ^s a business may be profitably 

 carried on only on large sized areas which 

 are capable of furnishing a sustained yield of 

 sufficient amount annually. This applies especi- 

 ally where home markets are not developed. 

 In the early days of my career I received a 

 letter asking whether private forestry was pos- 

 sible and as to methods of carrying it out. 

 This letter was signed "The Jabez Club." In 



answer, I stated that I believed I could carry it 

 out if given 3,000,000 acres of southern pine 

 and a working capital of $2,000,000. In reply 

 this correspondent said that he had one-half the 

 required acreage and asked for suggestions 

 where he could get the balance. This letter 

 was signed as was the first and I replied that 

 before going further I must know the name of 

 my correspondent. This letter had no reply. 

 I was unable to find the Jabez Club in any 

 dictionary. Jabez is a name mentioned once 

 in the Bible, when he was the only gentleman 

 present. 



4. Proper economic considerations demand 

 that agriculturally fit soils be reserved for food 

 production, leaving the poorer sites for forestry 

 use. This condition reflects disadvantageously 

 upon the unit area production, and upon all 

 the financial aspects of the business. For this 

 reason the great yields of agricultural lands can 

 not be expected as an average from forest 

 land. 



5. Financially, forestry means foregoing 

 present revenue or making present expenditure 

 for the sake of future revenue. Forestry is 

 profitable only in the long run; and the long 

 run on so-called forest soils as a rule means 

 50 to 150 years. 



6. These fundamental conditions of forest- 

 growing render it unattractive to private enter- 



