Address of the President. 179 



loss from these destructive fires. It took nature hundreds of 

 years to create those valuable forests. Will you allow them to 

 be destroyed in a day and deprive posterity for a century to 

 come of their inestimable benefits? 



Owing to those immense ice fields of the higher altitudes, 

 this Province is furnished with an abundance of water at the 

 source of supply. The forest covering on the mountain sides 

 aids in forming a natural reservoir by which a continuous flow 

 is maintained. Allow it to be destroyed and you will do your 

 part in creating a mountain desert. 



Mention has been made of reforestation. Fortunately, in 

 this Province nature, unaided, is doing that for you. A visit to 

 almost any of those districts which have been burnt over a few 

 years ago, will show you a splendid reproduction of the original 

 varieties rapidly growing up to take the place of the original 

 forest. You will see in most cases a splendid growth of young 

 cedar and fir coming on. Nature, with the munificence which 

 characterizes her operations everywhere in this favored land, 

 seems in this instance, to be putting forth extra efforts to reclaim 

 lost ground and all she asks is that you will not prejudicially 

 interfere with her operations. 



The costly work of artificial tree planting need not be at- 

 tempted. Keep the fire out of this young timber and there is 

 no reason why future generations may not be as abundantly 

 supplied as you are to-day. It is neither good forestry nor good 

 business to leave unutilized the product of the forest. As 

 President Roosevelt pertinently says, the product of the forest 

 is for use. And as this Province has a very large percentage of 

 land unsuited for agriculture, but admirably adapted for the 

 growth of timber, it follows that forestry here is a matter of 

 great importance. 



From what I have been able to learn of British Columbia, 

 and 1 have had an opportunity of seeing a good deal of it, I am 

 more than ever impressed with the vastness of its natural re- 

 sources. Its fisheries, its timber and its minerals, almost over- 

 whelm the imagination. Its future place as a producer of the 

 economic minerals, will undoubtedly be foremost, but here again 

 the timber is a necessity. 



It was stated by an authority at the American Forest Con- 

 gress that the mines of the United States consumed more timber 

 than the railways, enormous as is the consumption of the latter. 

 This being the case, it is apparent that those who are most 

 interested in the success of the mines should not be indifl'erent 

 regarding the forest. 



The time was when the lumberman of the country looked 

 with suspicion on the forester. Probably this was quite as 



