The Regina Meeting. 



113 



Mr. Knechtel's experiments were suc- 

 cessful it would cost a million dollars 

 for twenty townships. Would it not be 

 better to reserve the timber land now- 

 existing and spend the money in in- 

 creasing the planting which nature has 

 done? 



Mr. Ross called attention to the water- 

 shed knowm as the Eastern Slope of the 

 Rockies. This contained 8,224 square 

 miles, most of which was wholly vmsuit- 

 ed for agriculture. He quoted from a 

 report of Inspector MacMillan, who 

 asked if common lumber cost S22 per 

 M. in the prairies now with a million 

 population, what wculd it cost w^hen 

 there is a population of ten million, 

 when most of the forest land had been 



paper, Mr. R. H. Campbell, Dominion 

 Superintendent of Forestry, pointed out 

 the importance of the reserves to the 

 country and to every individual in it. 

 Some people were apt to think of the 

 reserves as an academic subject; but if 

 it w^ere considered seriously any one 

 must come to the conclusion that the 

 question of timber supply and forest 

 reserves was one of great interest to all. 

 There was no one who did not depend 

 upon the products of the forest for con- 

 veniences and comforts of all kinds. In 

 spite of all substitutes, more wood was 

 being used to-day than ever before, 

 and in spite of substitutes that necessity 

 would be constantly increasing. When 

 one came to look into the matter of wood 



Picnic Party on shore of Fish Lake, Moose Mountain Forest Reserve, Sask. 



cut and burned o\er? The coal mining 

 industry of Alberta would require forty- 

 five billion feet of mine props, the pro- 

 duct of nine million acres for sixty years. 

 This said nothing of railways, settlers 

 and other requirements. These facts, 

 along with the need of irrigation, show 

 the need for turning the Eastern Slope 

 into a Forest Reserve before it was too 

 late. 



Discussion of Paper of Mr. 

 A. H. D. Ross. 

 In opening the discussion on the 



iPlioto by A. Kncuhtel 



(August, 1909) 



supply the prospect was not reassuring. 

 In Europe they were importing much 

 more than they exported. Germany, 

 the foremost country in the world in 

 regard to forestry, in spite of what she 

 produced, was an importing country. 

 The same was true of France. In Eng- 

 land the whole of the timber used was 

 imported. Almost every country in 

 Europe is an importing country. Sweden 

 Nonvay and Russia (including Finland) 

 were the only exporting cotmtries. The 

 latter was the only one in which there 

 was any possibility of increase of ex- 

 ports. Sweden and Xorw-aj^ were 



