1576 



Canadian Forest fl/ Journal, March, 1918 



absorb the whole produce of her 

 forests," writes Sir John Stirling- 

 Maxwell, the noted Scotch authority. 



Certain it is that, as matters now 

 appear, none of the fighting members 

 of the Allied group, except the 

 United States and Canada, can give 

 to Great Britain a timber supply, 

 proof against political interferences 

 in war time or peace. Without a 

 daily timber supply. Great Britain 

 ceases to be a world factor, whether 

 in agriculture, manufacture or mili- 

 tary or naval enterprise. 



Look at the map once more! 



In a spirit of entire friendliness to 

 our United States rivals in forest 

 production, it surely behooves Cana- 

 dians to plan NOW to take full com- 

 mercial advantage of the inheritance 

 of natural forests. 



The Printer and the Tree 



We Canadians are possessors of 

 the world's greatest spruce supply 

 and spruce is the reliance of the 

 "newsprint" paper industry that 

 keeps 40 miJlion newspapers tumb- 

 ling daily from the presses of the 

 United States and Canada. We are 

 however, second to the United States 

 in total timber resources and the 

 latter country is very considerably 

 behind Russia. 



But Canada has sacrificed two- 

 thirds of her original timber to forest 

 fires! 



The map, therefore, does not mean 

 that the timber-growing sections are 

 actually dense with mammoth trees. 

 Far from that! If the choice timber 

 under license in British Columbia, for 

 example, were shoved to one corner, 

 it would take up just five per cent, of 

 the provincial area. Much the same 

 is true of all the other provinces. The 

 timber stand has been severely thin- 

 ned out by fire and careless cutting. 



So drowsy has been public senti- 

 ment regarding the value of forests, 

 so sluggish have Governmental poli- 

 cies been, in the main, that the sur- 

 vival of Canada's present forests has 

 been due to their isolated geographi- 

 cal position and only in recent years 

 to thoughtful care by their human 

 custodians. 



It is an encouraging sign that 

 Government and private systems of 

 forest protection have quickened 

 their pace remarkably during the 

 past four years. Even so, the waste 

 of the precious forest resources per- 

 sists season after season. Protec- 

 tive machinery — such as patrolmen, 

 telephones, lookout towers, fire 

 pumps, etc. — go a long way to stop 

 fires spreading. But to stop fires 

 STARTING is the big end of the 

 task. It can be accomplished only 

 by a constant educational hammering. 

 It means a reasoned, persistent en- 

 deavor to abate the misconceptions 

 of the splendid national value of the 

 forest industries. It means a country- 

 wide "show down" of facts to induce 

 the Canadian people to see that 

 Providence made TWO-THIRDS OF 

 CANADA UNFIT FOR AGRICUL- 

 TURE and that if natural law is not 

 to be defied, much of that two-thirds 

 ought to be kept producing timber for 

 centuries to come. 



The Road of Destinij 

 Canada's commercial destiny is 

 chained to the natural resources; the 

 land, the forests, the mines, fisheries 

 and water powers. Superficial acti- 

 vities, (with the dice loaded against 

 us from the outset) have cost us 

 heavily in wasted time, wasted legis- 

 lation, wasted public money. The 

 forest, of course, is a poor advertiser; 

 it cannot speak for itself. And 

 many of those who did speak for it 

 had far better '-&ve held their tongues. 

 Nothing has damaged Forest Con- 

 servation so deeply as the circus- 

 poster claim of "inexhaustible re- 

 sources" — a boast ironically illus- 

 trated by vast tracts of pillaged tim- 

 berlands. 



The maintenance of the Forests 

 of Canada rests wholly with the 

 people of Canada. Ninety-five per 

 cent, of all the timber lands in the 

 Dominion are public owned, and by 

 that potent, unchangeable fact, pre- 

 valent forest destruction, as well as 

 dissipation through bad commercial 

 methods is Community Business. 

 The man concerned in obtaining a 

 good Mayor for his town or honest 

 management of his province must, 



