The Montreal Forest Congress. 149 



session — and it is our solemn duty to so manage this trust as 

 not to dissipate its value or perhaps render it wholly incapable 

 of restoration." 



A suggestion made by Dr. Hough, which has perhaps 

 had effect on the policy followed in Canada, was that experi- 

 mental stations for the testing of trees on the plains of the West 

 should be established. As Dr. Saunders was present at the 

 meeting this hint may have been the starting point for the use- 

 ful experimental work which has since been done in the Cana- 

 dian West. 



In a paper from the standpoint of the lumbermen Hon. 

 J. K. Ward, of Montreal, pointed out what he considered to 

 be improvements required in the management of the forests. 

 Emphasizing the need of providing for the best use of the- stand- 

 ing timber, both by protection and utilization, he made the 

 suggestion: first, that there should be greater economy in man- 

 ufacturing, both in the mills and in the woods, turning to better 

 account the slabs, &c., in the former, and discouraging the 

 making of square timber as much as possible in the latter; 

 second, that on government lands the law as applied to pine 

 should extend to spruce and tamarack, i.e., that no tree less 

 than 12 inches at the stump should be cut down for commer- 

 cial purposes; third, that fire should be more closely watched. 

 On the last point the suggestion was made that the Government, 

 which is most interested in the preservation of the forests, should 

 employ as many men as are thought necessary in each agency 

 to look after and trace the origin of fires on the public domain, 

 giving them the power to take evidence so as to bring to punish- 

 ment those who either wantonly or carelessly set fire to or cause 

 the destruction of valuable property. In regard to settlement 

 Mr. Ward urged that no lands unfit for settlement should be 

 offered for sale and stated his view that in selling lands to settlers 

 it should be made a condition of sale that twenty acres in every 

 hundred should be given free, and that it should be forever 

 kept as woodland. 



A special committee had been appointed at a previous meet- 

 ing to report on forest fires. The report submitted by this com- 

 mittee pointed out the damage done by forest fires. It said 

 that the fires raging season after season through the forests have 

 caused a greater and more irreparable destruction, inflicting 

 deeper harm than the combined lumber industries of the past 

 and the present da3^ The harm done was not only to the tim- 

 ber but to the soil, the constantly recurring fires resulting in 

 the total destruction of every particle of organic matter in the 

 surface soil, reducing it to a state of aridity and barrenness. The 

 report did not make any suggestion as to a remedy. From 

 several of the lumberman in the convention, however, there 



