CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 47 



looking upon a man's land property as though it belonged to him absolutely and uncon- 

 ditionally and without any reference to other people's welfare. 



.Mr. STEWART. I am glad this discussion came up with regard to these reserves. 

 1 am just going to Winnipeg next week to make a report on certain reserves in the 

 province of Manitoba, in the Riding Mountains. There is one township that has been 

 partly taken up and I believe the land is fairly good, at least. There is> one point, 

 however, that- has not been touched upon. Although that land is good there it is on 

 a watershed, and even though the land is good to produce crops it is necessary to pre- 

 serve the timber on that watershed for the benefit of the surrounding territory. If we 

 destroy the Riding Mountains, some 45 townships, we simply destroy a large and most 

 fertile portion of that province. Now, it may generally be right enough to simply 

 reserve land which may be useless for agriculture, and here is a case where may be 

 found land already fitted for agriculture reserved simply for the benefit, it is as the basis 

 of the reservoir that supplies a large area that is dependent on it. This setting aside 

 of reserves is a matter that has engaged my attention ever since I undertook the man- 

 agement of the forestry of the Dominon. If there is any part of the Dominion where 

 forest reserves need attention it is in the sparsely-timbered districts of the west, because 

 if we destroy, as I said before, the timber in certain localities there, the headwaters 

 of these streams, we simply destroy the land adjoining the headwaters. It is well 

 known that the husbandman of the plains does not now fear the summer frost half 

 as much as he does the summer drouth, and it is necessary, and will be found necessary 

 there at least, I think, to set aside land for forestry purposes for the benefit it is for 

 supplying an even run-off for the water. There is one point connected with these 

 reserves, that in Ontario and Quebec, and in this northern country, deserve consider- 

 ation. You have perhaps the greatest water power anywhere to be found in the world 

 in Canada, in this northern country, but what benefit will these water powers be if 

 the source of supply from which the water is derived, that is the timber, is taken away. 

 There would simply be torrents in the spring and drouths in the summer. I have told 

 the people dependent for power on the Chaudiere Falls that the immense water power 

 in all that region depends on leaving a very large supply of timber on the head waters 

 of those streams. Now, how are we going to know where we are going to set aside 

 these reserves unless we have the country explored ? I do not think the Dominion, 

 or any of the provinces, can expend money better than in having a thorough explora- 

 tion as far as possible made of those northern districts. 



This matter of exploration is valuable not only for that. For many years, when 

 practising as a land surveyor, I used to notice that we were surveying township after 

 township not valuable for agriculture. The result of this division was that settlers 

 would go in and, as every person who knows anything of it in this northern country 

 knows, many of these townships would have been far more valuable if left in timber 

 not only f n- n < 'onomic reasons which I have mentioned, but actually for the cash 

 value of the timber. 



. There exists, therefore, the necessity in certain cases of retaining the forest even 

 where the land is good, where there is danger of impairing the source of water supply 

 by its removal. 



