Canadian Forestry Education. 73 



and when better understood will command equal attention and 

 be recognized as a factor that enters largely into the more im- 

 portant economic questions of the day. Just as our agricultural 

 colleges and experimental farms require a large number of 

 professional men with superior technical training to teach the 

 principles of agriculture and investigate the new problems that 

 are constantly coming forward for solution, and just as our 

 mining schools and our Geological Survey Department need 

 highly trained specialists to teach us how to develop our mineral 

 wealth, so our forestry schools and our Bureau of Forestry will 

 be expected to employ highly trained specialists for the teaching 

 of the principles of forestry and the investigation of its complex 

 problems. Twenty years ago the science of forestry was regarded 

 as an abstract and debatable theory, and all knowledge of it was 

 confined to a few scientific experts and enthusiasts whose views 

 were regarded as of doubtful value. To-day the most intelligent 

 and public-spirited members of the community regard the 

 treatment of our forest resources as a vital and urgent economic 

 problem, and there seems to be widespread recognition of the fact 

 that the preservation of a due proportion of the land in forest for 

 all time is the only possible means of securing either agricultural 

 fertility or a lasting supply of timber. The whole question is 

 an exceedingly complex and difficult one, and calls preeminently 

 for the exercise of the providential functions of the state to 

 counteract the destructive tendencies of private exploitation. 

 The state being an institution for the purpose of insuring not 

 only our present, but our future and continued welfare must, 

 necessarily, take an interest in the permanence of the natural 

 resources upon which its welfare rests. 



Inasmuch as the time required for a crop of trees to reach 

 the most profitable age for cutting is so long that very few 

 private owners can afford to adopt this branch of farming on a 

 large scale, it can best be conducted by the state — by the people 

 as a whole, and for the benefit of all. The experience of centuries 

 goes to show that while the individual makes the best farmer, 

 the state makes the better forester, and usually the only safe 

 and good forester. This being the case it seems to be the plain 

 duty of our legislators to make adequate provision for the train- 

 ing of an efficient corps of men with the technical training neces- 

 sary for the proper management of our magnificent forests. 

 Under rational management their producing capacity can be 

 increased manifold, and a handsome revenue obtained from them. 

 No other economic problem confronting our legislators is equal in 

 importance to that oflfered by the present condition and future 

 fate of our forests. The opportune time seems to have arrived 

 when effective public interest in forestry education and forest 

 preservation should be persistently aroused and stimulated. 



