Canadian Foreslry Journal, August, 1918 



1835 



The Returned Soldier Must Be Protected 



The necessity of haviiiii; all C"-an- 

 adian lands intended for soldier 

 settlement properly examined by ex- 

 pert Agricidturists and Foresters has 

 been championed again and again 

 by the Canadian Forestry Association 

 in its various publications, public 

 meetings and newspaper campaigns. 



A strong stand in favor of expert 

 demarcation of lands is taken by the 

 U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Frank- 

 lin H. Lane who brings to the Presi- 

 dent's attention the duty of the 

 repubhc to safeguard the returned 

 soldier from locating on non-agri- 

 cultural soils. Much of what the 

 Secretary says is directly applicable 

 to Canada. 



"Any plan for the development of 

 land for the returning soldier will 

 come face to face with the fact that a 

 new policy will have to be w^orked out 

 to meet the new conditions. The 

 era of free or cheap land in the 

 United States has passed. We must meet 

 the new conditions of developing 

 lands in advance — security must to a 

 degree replace speculation. 



"Every country has found itself 

 facing this problem of caring for 

 returning soldiers at the close of a 

 great war. F^rom Rome under 

 Caesar to France imder Napoleon, 

 and down even to our own Civil War, 

 the problem arose as to what could 

 be done with the soldiers to be 

 mustered out of military service. 



Not half Cultivatable. 

 ."At the close of the Civil War, 

 America had a situation similar to 

 that which now confronts it. For- 

 tunately at that time the public 

 domain offered opportunity to the 

 home returning men. The great part 

 those men played in developing the 

 West is one of our epics. To the 

 great part of returning soldiers land 

 will ofTer the great and fundamental 

 opportunity. Official figures show we 

 have unappropriated land in con- 

 tinental United States to the amount 

 of 230 million acres. // is safe to 

 say that not one-half of this land will 

 ever prove cultivatable in any sense. 



British Guiana's Timber Riches 



British Guiana produces some of 

 the finest timbers in the world. 

 Those that are at present most com- 

 monly exploited are Crab wood; 

 Greenheart, largely used in the con- 

 struction of the Manchester Ship 

 Canal and in the construction of 

 lock gates for the Panama Canal: 

 Wallaba; Balata or Bullet Wood; 

 brown and yellow Silverballi, Letter 

 or snake wood; red Cedar. These 

 woods are suitable for building pur- 

 poses and the making of furniture. 

 Wallaba and several other kinds of 

 wood are used for fuel as a substitute 

 for coal. The forests also abound in 

 soft woods which are suitable for 

 making paper pulp, yet not a single 

 pulp-making factory exists in the 

 Colony. 



Other products are Balata, the 



dried latex of the Bullet tree; the 

 exports of this gum are over 1,000,000 

 lbs. per annum, the bulk going to the 

 United Kingdom; Locust gum, used 

 in the preparation of varnishes; 

 Tonka beans; Vanilla beans; Palm 

 nuts of various kinds which are 

 plentiful and could doubtless be 

 turned to commercial value as oil 

 producing factors; Souarri nuts, 

 larger and finer than Brazil nuts. 

 Plants of medicinal value also abound, 

 of which no use whatever is now 

 made. 



+ 



1 This is a dangerous season j 



j for forest fires! If you neglect to i 



J extinguish your camp fire, if you throw • 



I away lighted matches or tobacco, you I 



j have written an invitation to Disaster. | 



