^atta&mn H^nr^Htr^ Jnurnal. 



Vol. II. Febru.\ry, 1906. No. 1 



CANADIAN FORESTRY CONVENTION. 



The first Canadian Forestry Convention held under the 

 auspices of the Canadian Forestry Association, was opened in 

 the Railway Committee Room of the House of Commons, Ottawa, 

 at 10 a.m., on Wednesday, January 10th, 1906. 



There was a large attendance of representative men from 

 all parts of the Dominion, as well as a number of leading 

 foresters from the United States. 



The meeting was called to order by the right Honourable 

 Sir Wilfrid Laurier, G.C.M.G., Prime Minister, who invited His 

 Excellency the Governor General to open the Convention. 



His Excellency the Governor General — Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my privilege to open this 

 Forestry Convention which has met in response to the invitation 

 of the Prime Minister to consider, and before it is too late, 

 questions of the highest importance to the future well being 

 of the Dominion. I do not propose to anticipate with more than 

 a very few remarks of my own the addresses of the distinguished 

 gentlemen who have been requested to place the results of their 

 experience and their counsels at the disposal of those who form 

 the opinion and make the laws of the Dominion. I will onlv 

 say that although my experience of Canada has been com- 

 paratively short, it has yet been sufficient to impress me with 

 the urgent desirability of focussing the best brains of the 

 Dominion on the immediate consideration of what shall he done 

 with regard to our forests in order to protect the soil on which 

 the maintenance of our agricultural prosperity depends. 



I have myself seen in India, in Asia Minor, in Greece and in 

 Italy, extensive tracts of territory once inhabited by a strenuous, 

 prosperous, numerous population, and now reduced to the miserv 

 of a barren desolation by the unregulated deforestation of their 

 lands by a blind and selfish generation which had no re<?ard for 



