14 i 1\ t/)/,l.V FORr.sTUY ASSOCIATION. 



ample protection against fire may be given indeed we shall insist upon this. Mr. 

 Joly de Lotbiniere will remember that last year we had some discussion upon this 

 question of railways. Now, I want to say for his information than upon the Temis- 

 caming and Northern Ontario Railway we have tried the experimenit of supplying 

 our fire rangers with velocipedes. We place the rangers six miles apart, with instruc- 

 tions to follow each train through their section on the velocipedes, particularly the 

 construction trains, so as to prevent the possibility of fires caused by sparks thrown 

 by the locomotives or from coal dropping from the ash pans attaining any serious 

 proportions. I think if a similar policy is pursued on the Grand Trunk Pacific, and 

 other railways running through the rear parts of the province, the result will be as 

 satisfactory as it has been on the Temiscaming and Northern Ontario road, where 

 last year we did not lose $10 worth of timber, although the road was being constructed 

 through one of the best pineries of the province. 



I need not pursue in detail the different questions with which we have to deal. 

 Taken as a whole the great object of the existence of this society has been to educate 

 the people in connection with the protection of the forest wealth of our country. One 

 great means of doing so is by having gentlemen of experience, and experts in their 

 various lines of business, read papers at meetings of this institution. I am not speak- 

 ing particularly of scientific men, but of lumbermen who know the practical difficul- 

 ties and other gentlemen who have given the subject of forest preservation careful 

 attention. Then we have discussions on these papers, as I hope we shall have upon 

 papers read at this meeting, and by the publication of the proceedings of this society 

 in which the papers read and the discussions upon them will be found, we hope to 

 create a public sentiment which will assist the governments in taking an intelligent 

 care of the forest wealth of the country. In the early history of this association some 

 lumbermen had the idea that it was a society of faddists bound upon advancing their 

 ideas, which were regarded as wholly impracticable, and merely intended to be talked 

 about. This, of course, was a mistaken view, and we have won our way against this 

 opinion, until to-day we are able to say that some of the most prominent lumbermen 

 in the country are members of this association, and are assisting us in every possible 

 way to build up a sound public opinion upon this whole question. 



The question of the creation of large forest reserves is another matter that has 

 engaged our attention. This is a policy that must commend itself to every govern- 

 ment having large areas of public lands, sections of which are suitable for nothing 

 but the growing of timber. It is a policy which has commended itself to most of the 

 provincial governments, and indeed to the Dominion government. In Ontario, 

 British Columbia, Quebec and the North-west there has been set apart already as 

 forest reserves nearly nineteen million acres of land. In the province of Ontario we 

 have set apart some seven million acres. In the province of Manitoba, I understand, 

 there are three and a half million acres. In British Columbia there are six hundred 

 and twenty-four thousand acres. In Quebec, one million seven hundred thousand 

 In all, as I said, there are somewhete between eighteen million and nineteen 

 million acres, which have been set apart absolutely as forest reserves from which it 

 intended to exclude settlement. It is not the intention to exclude the public alto- 

 , because we wish to make these reserves, under proper restrictions, play grounds 

 for the people, as well as to protect and conserve the timber growing upon them. 



