12 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



to. It extends in an east and west direction, from ocean to 

 ocean, a distance of about three thousand miles in length, with 

 an average breadth of probably about five hundred miles, be- 

 tween the arable land on the south and the barren lands of the 

 far north. Is there anything in connection with this great re- 

 gion demanding our attention ? To this or almost any question 

 regarding it an answer is difficult to give, for the reason that we 

 know so little abotit it, but this very ignorance suggests one thing 

 that should be undertaken, and that is exploration and examina- 

 tion in order to ascertain the value of what we there possess. 

 Very little information of a definite character can be obtained at 

 present even concerning its geography, no matter how diligent 

 the enquiry, and much less concerning its resources and capabi- 

 lities, while to the great majority of our people this region is a 

 veritable "terra incognita" of which no more, perhaps less, is 

 known than of the steppes of Asia, or the deserts of Africa, and yet 

 it is, so to speak, Canada's wood-lot. It occupies the same re- 

 lation to the arable land to the south that the rough and unclear- 

 ed portions of the individual farm do to the cultivated parts of it. 



I have said elsewhere that we as a people occupy the position 

 of a farmer who has settled, cleared up and erected buildings on 

 the front of his farm, but who has never even visited the portion 

 outside his enclosures. What would be the course of any intelli- 

 gent farmer on starting to make a home on one of our bush lots? 

 Certainly the very first act would be to explore and thoroughly 

 examine every part of his homestead. He would then clear up 

 those parts best adapted for the growth of crops, and leave the 

 less productive portions for pasture, and the roughest of all to 

 serve his purpose as a wood-lot; and this is precisely what the 

 nation should do with reference to its unoccupied lands. The 

 first thing to learn what we really possess and its character, and, 

 second, to invite settlers to locate only on land which will re- 

 ward them for their labour; and, third, to retain in the hands of 

 the Government such forested land as is unfit for agriculture but 

 is better adapted for the growth of timber than for any other pur- 

 pose. The policy should be to afford the settler the means by 

 which he may earn his living by granting him good land on which 

 lie can grow his crops, whereas to make him a gift of the natural 

 timber outside his own homestead would be virtually giving him 

 possession of a crop which he had no part in producing, but which 

 was the natural product of the soil, and which it had taken a cen- 

 tury to produce. This should be regarded as an asset of the 

 whole country. There can be no valid reason whatever adduced 

 to support the theory that the timber on non-agricultural lands 

 should be given away to the individual. In the case of agricul- 

 tural lands the farmer's intelligent labour is the chief factor in 

 producing his reward, but in the case of the virgin forest he does 



