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Let me say that if our traim-d foresters are not employed it will not be for the 

 want of important interests in which the special knowledge of the forester would be 

 of the verv greatest profit. Who will assert that the administration of the Crown 

 forest lands of Ontario has hitherto been ideally perfect, or that lumbering has always 

 been conducted with due regard to ultimate economy, or that the farmer has managed 



woodlands to his own best advantage and that of the country as a whok? And 

 what is true of the past will be true of the future, unless some systematic policy in- 

 volving the utilization of expert direction is adopted. If such a policy is not adopted, 

 it will only be because of the apathy or the want of intelligence of the people of this 

 country. I have more faith in the intelligence and business foresight of Canada than 

 to suppose that this is possible. 



We may, I think, infer what will happen here by what is happening in the United 

 States. The circumstances of the two countries are closely parallel vast tracts of 

 forests, once thought inexhaustible, have disappeared, and a pressing necessity arises 

 for economy of the remnant ^nd the production of new -forests for future needs. So 

 far, the parallel holds good, but ,as usual, the people of the United States are a step 

 in advance of us. They have already begun to utilize the forester in a profitable 

 way; we have not. They have felt the necessity of the forester, they have imported 

 him from abroad, they have founded schools of forestry, and they have established a 

 great national bureau of forestry at Washington, supported at great expense by the 

 State, and of itself requiring the services of more trained foresters than the schools 

 can supply. 



The Washington bureau may serve as an example of scientific forestry organized 

 by the Government. Some idea of the magnitude of its work may be obtained by re- 

 ferring to a few examples taken from its report of 1902. (1.) Applications for expert 

 advice as to the forest management of private lands covering an aggregate of ,709,120 

 acres had been received, and of these applications the bureau was able to deal with 

 only 84, owing to the lack of men and money. The work of the bureau in preparing 

 working plans for economic lumbering in five of the national forest reserves was con- 

 tinued. These reserves comprise a total of 58,850,925 acres. More important still in 

 their ultimate results are the forest investigations carried on by the bureau, investiga- 

 tions which concern not only the private owner, but the nation at large, covering such 

 subjects as commercial woods, studies of forest conditions in various States, fires and 

 grazing, turpentine orcharding, the production of timber for railway necessities, &c. 

 The work also covered the superintendence of tree-planting plans in 29 States and 

 Territories and 172 different localities. 



A notable example of the investigations mentioned above is the inquiry of Dr. 

 Hermann von Schrenk into the timber rot in the forest reserves of South Dakota. 

 In thU reserve he found on the stump about 600,000,000 feet of dead and dying timber. 

 The death and subsequent decay of the trees, Dr. Schrenk has shown to be caused by 

 a pine-destroying beetle and certain fungi, and he makes a series of recommendations, 

 which, if followed, will result in saving a very large part of the dead wood. 



The Biltraore estate will show what scientific forestry is doing for the private 

 owner. Before its purchase by G. W. Vanderbilt, this estate was a desert, all the 

 marketable timber having been removed and the land devastated by fire, drought and 

 the pasturing of cattle. Under working plans prepared by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, and 



rwards carried out by Dr. Schenck, it has become a valuable property, on which 

 the returns, though remote, are assured, a 'gilt-edged' investment, as it is termed 

 by the Scientific American. 



A-> to forestry methods practised by corporations, I may say that several rail- 

 way companies in the United States (amongst them the Pennsylvania Railroad) have 

 planted forests of their own for the production of ties. This venture is proving most 

 successful. This work also demands the supervision of the expert forester ,and is not 

 undertaken, you may be sure, for sentimental reasons. It is a matter of dollars and 

 cents. 



