Our Fond Uencrve I'mhUin. 



l 



financial slandpoint merely and out- 

 side of all auxiliai'y benefits, the 

 general local public have four times 

 as f<reat an interest in nuiking and 

 keeping a given piece of forest per- 

 manently productive as has th»! lum- 

 l)erman who may chance to own oi- 

 eontrol it. 



Look, for example, at the case of 

 the fjake States, Michigan, AViscon- 

 sin, and .Minnesota. In 18UU their 

 total output of white pine was over 

 nine billion board feet, but in IIHO 

 it luid sunk to less than two billion, 

 and as a result nu)ie than oOO saw- 

 mills, employing many thousands of 

 workmen, have been forced to cease 

 operations — not to speak of many of 

 the dependent wood-woi"king indus- 

 tries — simply because no steps were 

 taken to make the lumbering indus- 

 try permanent. The science of for- 

 est i-y was completely overlooked. 



The people of those states are now 

 suffering because they thus foolishly 

 allowed — considering the part ruin- 

 ous taxation i)layed, one might say 

 compelled— the lund)ernuin to mine, 

 instead of assisting him to crop, their 

 magnificent pine forests. Mark you. 

 the lumberman suffered little. f(»r un- 

 like the cojiimunity he coidd move 

 away, and he is now repeating Ids 

 mining operations in the Southern 

 States or on the I'aeifie Coast. And. 

 speaking of .Miidiigan especially, re- 

 member that these tind)er sharks did 

 not for the most |>art denude agri- 

 cultural land. Itut sandy plains an<l 

 rocky barrens fit oidy to grow tim- 

 ber, land wh'ch is now an unprodiic 

 five waste of scrub-oak and bram- 

 bles, land which for years the state 

 has been vainly trying to sell at teii 

 to tifty cents an acre. 



'Oh.' you say. 'that misuse coid<l 

 not hapi'en in ('aiiada where the 

 lumberman does not hold in fee 

 simple l)ut is tnerely a licensee whom 

 we can easily control and force to do 

 right.' In that sayinu' you voice the 

 all-too-ger.erally accepted fallacy 

 that the lumberman is a sort of felon 

 whom the people nuist coerce even 



to the point of making ! ■ie 



money, for th. of the luiure. 



That i«lea is su; .,. .: \vr"' \ 



iund>ernuin is a useful 

 • luecr. lie is instrumental in tranH- 

 miffing a natural re '.> na- 



ti(uial prosperity and ;..., , , "'dy 



lie needs to be 'wisely r< i,' 



The people nuisf form a pji ip 



with him and frankly and lu. 

 operate according to benefits (i . . 

 (1. There h in Canada to-day a 

 great field of oi)[)ortuinty awaitint; 

 the genius who will evolve, on e(|iiit- 

 able principles, a triangular basis of 

 co-operation among the following 

 trinity of interests : 



(1* All the peo|de— whether na- 

 tion or province- sovi-reign owner 

 of the land, the fjisf t'aetor in pro- 

 duction ; 



(2) The Community- proviilers of 

 the labor, the seconcl factor in pro- 

 < I net ion ; 



(3) The Lumbernum -ce of 

 ' nterprise. ••apital, organ.. .. n. the 

 third factor in pnxlucfion. 



Such a workable partnenthip. en- 

 >uring con.servation by conferring 

 on eacji interest its prop 

 bilities and rewarils. is ;.. 

 badly needed to-day on our lit 

 timber lands. Afterwanls. it« me- 

 thods would naturally ' > - > 

 and adapted to the man... 

 unlicense<l Ian<ls, and to th- r 

 agenient of private f ry 

 Canadian should take .m r 

 interest in seeing to it 

 future is duly considered in the 

 present use and mat dl 

 our Crown :r- ' '• ■•nsi .i '- 

 whether |>r«. d or f- 

 depiortible resultd in the I 

 and in many of on ' 

 should warn U'« •' 

 mn.sl unfair as 

 licenaees — for if those M 

 U»nnen who actually • ir 

 cut-over lafid d'"'' "• w 

 much nuin- can li' -d 

 to dot 



