38 <M\I/>/I\ FORESTRY \SSOCIATION 



that I cared anything about. I think I must have been born a lumberman, because 

 I then entered into all the joys and delights of being in a business that I like, and I 

 hope I will die a lumberman. I went to that beautiful north country Algoma 22 

 or 23 years ago, from Peterborough, where I then lived. I had gone to the shanties 

 and woods and had a great deal of so-called information about the lumber business. 

 I was there told a great many things and every one of them, without exception, was 

 wrong. I was told that pine would not succeed pine, and a great many other things 

 of the old lumberman's lore, and walking around in the woods of Algoma I saw a 

 great many things that did not altogether agree with the things I had heard. I then 

 started to study myself, and so little did I know that I did not know then that there 

 were seeds within the cone. I refrained from reading books on forestry, so that I 

 oould make my own individual observations. 



Mr. DAVIS. Gentlemen, I am sorry to say that I am just informed that I am 

 wanted in the House, and must leave. 



Mr. BERTRAM. I may say, Mr. Davis, that I will think that over and possibly 

 write you. I will have to do that, because I must think the matter out. The old 

 formula of the lumberman was to cut down your timber as quickly as you can and 

 get your money out of it and save interest. All the old lumbermen had that idea, and 

 I was wondering if there was not a .better plan than that, and while we were on our 

 forestry inquiry I found no better place than on my own limits to take the members 

 of the Commission. To make a long story short, and not to detain you, I may say 

 that in place of adopting that policy, I adopted the very opposite policy, and if the 

 grace of the Ontario Government would allow me to keep it, and I would live for- 

 ever, I would lumber forever, because I cut no more each year than the accretion of 

 timber. On the other side they are sending experts from the school of forestry down 

 to the southern states and they are not cutting any more than the annual growth. 

 And that is the true system for cutting on this continent. By chance Mr. South- 

 worth and I came together at the Canadian Institute, and we found out that there 

 were some things on which different people thought alike. Canadian lumbermen 

 indulged in a great deal of hilarity at my expense when I advocated this policy and 

 they thought I was a very good, first-class specimen of a maniac. Now, I am very glad 

 to see that a large number of our lumbermen are alive to the value of the young 

 pine, and if you will take the preliminary report of the Forestry Commission, the 

 late Mr. Rathbun and myself, the two lumbermen on it, and Mr. Southworth and 

 some other gentlemen you will see the exact facts, and if any of you have a pine tree 

 eight or ten inches, not fit for cutting, I say keep it and it will pay you double the 

 interest of any bank or loaning institution in the world. It is for the interests of 

 the country, and I certainly think it is for the interests of ourselves, as well. 1 will 

 look into the questions asked by Mr. Davis, who is trying to get all the money he can 

 for the Province. The Provincial authorities never sell their hen on a rainy day, and 

 if the Government could see a chance whereby they are likely to get some advantage 

 of us they will get it and I will not commit myself. I can assure them that if I care 

 for lumber under license to me for 15 or 20 years I am quite entitled to some interest 

 in it. I shall try and give the Government some discreet reply. It is quite a diffi- 

 cult matter. 



