70 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May-June, 1912. 



as the present owner, the Canadian 

 people, can? 



This business man would regard 

 the reserve as a big tree-farm from 

 which he must produce the largest 

 quantity of the best possible timber 

 in the shortest possible time. To do 

 this he makes use of those two ulti- 

 mate natural factors of production, 

 sunlight and soil fertility. By pa- 

 tiently fostering the best conditions 

 for these two factors to work togeth- 

 er for the production of timber, the 

 Germans and the Japs have built up 

 their magnificent forests : and we in 

 Canada can do the same. The oppor- 

 tunity and possibilities for forestry 

 on the Riding Mountain reserve are 

 splendid, and in this it is only a type 

 of all the reserves in these prairie 

 provinces. 



Experiments Needed. 



Now, outside of economic effi- 

 ciency, the ultimate success of such 

 a forest policy must depend, as you 

 well know, upon a close knowledge 

 of the natural laws underlying and 

 controlling all tree life and growth, 

 and our skill in applying this knowl- 

 edge under given local conditions — 

 in a word, upon the science and art 

 of silviculture. 



Forestry practice cannot be adopt- 

 ed wholesale from another country, 

 because our conditions are different ; 

 often on two parts of the same re- 

 serve they differ greatly. What 

 Canadian foresters need to-day to 

 guide their fieldwork aright is the 

 compiled result from many definite 

 local experiments. AA^e need a num- 

 ber of forest experiment stations. 



Isn't it rather odd that the Canad- 

 ian people maintain some fifteen ex- 

 perimental farms, where experts 

 search out the laws underlying the 

 best local farming practice and how 

 best to apply them, and yet make no 

 study whatever of their forest crop? 

 If all this research is needed in the 

 case of soil products which grow in 

 sixty to one hundred days, how 

 much more for one requiring sixty 

 to one hundred years? Lumbering 



is the third greatest industry in Can- 

 ada, yet as a nation what are we do- 

 ing to guarantee its future prosper- 

 ity and permanence? And this seems 

 all the more remarkable when one 

 reflects that fully two thirds of our 

 cropable land in Canada is suited 

 not to the growth of food crops lut 

 wood crops. 



The explanation, of course, is that 

 up till now the lumberman has not 

 had to grow his crop like the L'armer 

 does. lie has cared nothing about 

 the cost of production. He has mere- 

 ly harvested an unearned increment. 

 But from now on that condition will 

 change and definite knowledge of 

 the life-history of our trees become 

 more and more necessary. More and 

 more must our lumberman — whether 

 on Crown lands or not — make provi- 

 sions for future need by planting, 

 rather than by purchase. 



The People's Interest. 



As the result of a wise land policy 

 our Canadian timberland has not 

 been alienated, so that forestry in 

 Canada will ever be primarily gov- 

 ernment work, and this is well. As 

 more and more of this cut-over 

 licensed land reverts to the Crown, 

 it — along with the rest of our wild 

 lands — should undergo an expert 

 soil survey and classification, and all 

 that is absolute forest land be made 

 part of our National Forests. (The 

 term 'Reserve' is an unhappy one, 

 because their usable products are not 

 locked up but under due safeguards 

 are for full and immediate use). But 

 whatever the name, let its status as 

 forest land be fixed beyond doubt. 

 Permanence is the very first essen- 

 tial for a forest reserve. 



Just let me emphasize in one fur- 

 ther word that the people of any 

 forest-supported community have a 

 vastly greater interest at stake in 

 perpetuating that forest wealth than 

 has the lumberman who is exploiting: 

 it. For every dollar of profit that 

 lumberman clears, he pays out four 

 for labor, supplies, machinery, trans- 

 portation and taxes, so that from a 



