92 CANADIAN !'<> /.' />//,') ASSOCIATION 



question, for I feel confident that the government will do its best to make this revenue 

 a permanent one, and the opposition is alert enough to bring the government to task 

 if such a duty to the people be neglected. 



But we in Ontario have much yet to learn about the management of forests, and 

 the importance of the subject demands the very best thought that can be given to it 

 both by the government and the opposition. Some of the chief problems with which 

 those in charge of the Crown lands forests have to deal might be summed up in these 

 few questions: How can the most money be made out of these forests? How is this 

 source of revenue to be permanently maintained? How can these valuable forests best 

 be protected from devastating fires? How can the forests be most economically re- 

 generated on areas which have already been denuded by fires or by the lumbermen? 



As to how these problems are being worked out by annual timber sales, by more 

 stringent regulations regarding the cutting of timber, by increased forest reservations, 

 by fire-ranging systems, &c., I shall not take your time to discuss. What, in my 

 opinion, is most needed at the present time is a larger staff of experienced foresters 

 n.'en skilled in the scientific management of forests, who can have a personal oversight 

 of these forests, and not only keep the Government posted as to their condition, but 

 see that the regulations regarding the forests are faithfully carried out. 



With reference to forestry in the settled and older parts of Ontario, we have 

 quite different conditions, and a different set of forestry problems present themselves. 

 The forests which once covered the land have been gradually cut away year by year till 

 all that remains now are the isolated patches here and there known as the farmers' 

 wood lots. In many counties in Southern Ontario the proportion of woodland to 

 cleared land is not more than 8 or 9 per cent, which is only about one-third of what 

 it should be to maintain the most favourable climatic conditions. 



The disastrous effect of this undue removal of the forests is becoming more and 

 more apparent. The snows, which in a well- wooded country melt away gradually in 

 the spring and soak into the soil to support vegetation through the summer, now go 

 off rapidly in the spring, washing over the land and carrying much of the fertility 

 into the streams; while these streams in many sections of the country become swollen 

 to such an extent that the spring floods are becoming more and more every year a 

 menace to life and property. 



I need not go on to explain the ill effects of the removal of the forests upon the 

 climate of the country: How it renders the country more subject to extremes of heat 

 and cold; more exposed to sweeping winds, cyclones and tornados; more subject to 

 protracted droughts in summer. These effects are becoming more noticeable year by 

 year, and at the present session of the legislature we find provision being made for 

 insurance against losses from, such causes. Would it not have been wiser if we had 

 taken action years ago to prevent the excessive removal of the forests, which has 

 brought about such conditions? 



One of the first problems we have to deal with is to rouse a more or less indiffer- 

 ent public to the necessity of taking immediate action to check any further removal 

 of the forests. And to encourage them to reforest those areas which should never 

 have been cleared of trees. 



How can we best make the public see the importance of this is one of the prob- 

 lems we have to meet. As lecturer in forestry at the Ontario Agricultural College, I 

 have, for the past ten years, been trying to impress this as forcibly as I can upon the 

 students in attendance at the college. Mr. Southworth, in his excellent reports as 

 clerk of forestry, has for years been educating the reading public." This association 

 also for a shorter time, but over a much wider field, has been helping to educate public 

 sentiment in favour of scientific forestry. At times we may have felt somewhat dis- 

 couraged because our efforts apparently have borne so little fruit, but nevertheless the 

 leaven has been working, and I, for one, feel greatly encouraged and hope for much 

 more rapid progress in the future. 



As an example of how public sentiment is growing, I would call your attention to 

 the action taken by the Ontario Experimental Union in this matter. For the past 



