2 THE FORESTER January, 



The report of the treasurer was read, as hereafter given. 



The Chair named Messrs. George B. Sudworth and E. M. Griffith as an auditing 

 committee, to which the report of the Treasurer was referred. 



The Chair also named Mr. F. V. Coville, Botanist of the Department of Agriculture, 

 as chairman of a committee on nominations and resolutions, and at the suggestion of 

 Mr. Coville, the committee was completed by the addition of Messrs. Arnold Hague, 

 F. H. Newell, Gen. C. C. Andrews, of Minnesota, and Prof. T. H. MacBride, of 

 Iowa. 



Mr. J. Keim Stauffer, assistant corresponding seci'etary, reported the present mem- 

 bership lists, there having been an addition of 203 members during the past year. 

 Mr. Stauffer also stated, as manager of THE FORESTER, that he was at present en- 

 gaged in a systematic endeavor to increase the patronage and influence of the magazine, 

 and detailed to some extent his editorial work. 



Mr. Newell, in reply to a question by the Chair, said he thought the time was ripe 

 for a lai-ge increase in membership, but that the machinery formerly in use for this 

 purpose had not been running of late; regarding which, in reply to a question by Mr. 

 Coville, Mr. Stauffer stated that a large part of the yeai-'s increase in membership had 

 been due to the efforts of Mr. Thoburn, \vho had done considerable work in this line 

 before he left for the West. 



The Chair then called upon Mr. Elihu Stewart, Chief Inspector of Timber and 

 Forestry for the Interior Department of the Dominion of Canada, to speak upon the 

 condition of forestry in Canada. 



Mr. Stewart said there was in process of formation in Canada an organization which 

 they hoped would be of great benefit. For several years many had been aware of the 

 enormous destruction taking place by fire. In twenty-five years' experience as a land 

 surveyor he had become impressed with the necessity of doing something. A few 

 years ago he urged upon the Premier the urgent necessity of a system of forestry. 

 Recently he had been put in charge of the organization of such a system. In Canada 

 they have the same difficulty, he said, as in the United States. The ownership of the 

 forest land is divided between the provincial and the general governments. There ai*e 

 immense tracts of Spruce well worthy of preservation. There is, of course, a great 

 amount of prairie land, but even in the prairie land there are large belts of timber. 

 The Premier, he continued, is quite advanced in his ideas about tree-planting on the 

 plains. There are experimental farms on the plains, which have shown conclusively 

 that trees can be grown on arid land. These farms are under the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, but the land is owned by the Interior Department, under which comes also the 

 Geological Survey. He had proposed the establishment of a Bureau of Forestry, one 

 function of which should be to send out experts to lecture at the farmers' institutes 

 which are held all over the Northwest. The Deputy Minister proposes to have them 

 give instruction, also, as to tree-planting. One of the greatest works that can be 

 undertaken is to prevent forest destruction bv fire. He thought that for one tree cut 

 by the lumbermen, ten have been burned. His idea is to map out the country that is 

 surveyed, and have exploration surveys of the rest. Some reserves have been made, 

 one extending from the Bow River to the boundary. He hopes to divide the country 

 up into districts, each in charge of a firewarden, who will select assistants to be called 

 out in case of fire. 



Gen. C. C. Andrews, Chief Fire Warden of Minnesota, who began forestry agita- 

 tion ten years before this Association was formed, as the Chair stated, was called upon 

 to explain the workings of the fire warden system of Minnesota. 



Gen. Andrews spoke of his having been present at the first meeting of this Associa- 

 tion, in 1882, and regretted that he had not been able to attend another annual meeting 

 until the present one. He was still studying forestry, he said, and was glad to see so 

 many young men entering upon the same work. The system in Minnesota is very 



