CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 95 



years after that I got out more and better square timber than was made in the pro- 

 vince of Quebec two "or three years ago. 



Mr. Little pointed to one of the illustrations in the Fourth Annual Report of the 

 Association, that of a group of white pine, and said: I would rather have a lot of 

 first quality spruce trees than any in that little patch of white pine timber. The 

 mighty monarch there is simply a fire-scarred shell. When it is cut down, it will fall 

 to pieces, being filled with punk and rottenness. There are, you will see, some ram- 

 pikes running from the root to the crown of every tree, and you could not get a clear 

 board from the whole dozen. (Pointing to map again.) All through this section of 

 the province there was really the finest timber in eastern Canada. I have myself cut 

 masts for the British government one hundred and twenty-eight feet long and eighteen 

 inches at the top end, many of the trees being six and a half feet on the stump. I 

 hear the lumbermen now speaking about timber of forty-five and fifty feet average. 

 I have taken, rafts to Quebec of one hundred and fifty feet average. I say, gentlemen, 

 there is one class of timber that is getting very, very scarce, and that is good white 

 pine timber; we will not have it very long. Mr. White told us that we had ten billion 

 feet of pine in the province of Ontario. 



Mr. WHITE. More than that; we know where we have that much. 



Mr. LITTLE. I am very glad to know there is that much, and I hope it is of a 

 tetter quality than shown in the illustration. It is not a great deal from a national 

 point of view. I would like to have the pleasure of seconding any resolution passed 

 by our Forestry Association, if you will draw it up. 



Mr. WHITE. I just wanted to say a few words, sir, in connection with the very 

 able paper which we have had from Professor Hutt, and also just a word or two in 

 connection with what has fallen from Mr. Little. Now, it is true that, in the opinion 

 of some people, we have not done everything that we should have done for the pre- 

 servation of the forests. That is the opinion that some people have, but people must 

 remember that in this country of ours we have what are considered practically illimit- 

 able forests, and where we had such an enormous wealth of timber, nobody seemed to 

 (think there was any possibility of its coming to an end within two or three lives at 

 any rate, and where you have an enormous supply of any material, very much interest 

 Is not taken in its preservation. It is when you begin to get short of it, or see an end 

 of it, as it were, that interest is aroused and people begin to protect and conserve and 

 husband in every way possible. Now, gentlemen who talk about the Government 

 looking closely after the timber in this enormous province must bear in mind the 

 great extent of the country. Mr. Southworth said, only the other day, in a lecture, 

 that we had some forty million of acres of land in this province that was not fitted 

 for anything but growing timber. It is all nonsense for gentlemen to talk to us about 

 what is done in Germany, or small European states, in connection with the study of 

 forestry, and expect us to apply the rules and inspection and study observed there to 

 the whole of our immense forest territory. We have not got the money or the men, 

 and I doubt if the legislature would vote us sufficient money to enable us to place 

 men in every hole and corner of this province to study the trees, and how they grow, 

 and all that sort of thing. It is true that at the Agricultural College at Guelph an 



