132 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Septeinher-Octoher , 1912. 



in April, 1882, and among thofe present 

 were three delegates representing the Cana- 

 dian government, two of whom are still 

 alive. The convention was actually the best 

 ever held, successful as succeeding ones have 

 been. A second convention was held in 

 Montreal the same year, and Sir Henri Joly 

 de Lotbiniere was the first president. This 

 convention passed off with as much aplomb 

 as the one in Cincinnati, and from that time 

 the fortunes of the international association 

 which was known as the American T^restry 

 Association, were unquestioned. Tn 1900 

 the Canadian Forestry Association was form- 

 ed and its progress had been rapid and its 

 influence immense. 



'There is an antagonism between the for- 

 ester and the lumberman,' said Dr. Fernow 

 in conclusion. * It is an antagonism that 

 will never die, that can never die. The 

 lumberman is the harvester and, like the 

 harvesters whom the railways bring into the 

 west at this season of the year, he is no 

 more a forester than they are farmers. The 

 forester is the farmer who is cultivating a 

 crop and the lumberman is the harvester 

 who is gathering it in. ' 



Canada's Forest Resources Reviewed. 



Mr. James White, secretary of the Com- 

 mission of Conservation of Canada, warned 

 the lumbermen as well as the public that 

 the timber resources of the Dominion were 

 not illimitable. No more dangerous idea, 

 no more ruinous conception, could be enter- 

 tained, he said. Instead of the forests of 

 the Dominion being unlimited, they were 

 absolutely the very reverse. One idea was 

 that they were greater than those of the 

 United States. They never were on a level 

 with the latter. The forest resources of 

 Nova Scotia, at the present milling capacity, 

 were only enough for twenty years. In New 

 Brunswick there were no definite figures, 

 but no doubt between the cut made by 

 the lumbermen and the devastation of fire 

 their forest resources nuist be tremendously 

 depleted. 



To-day Quebec had no pine that was not 

 in private hands. There were large areas of 

 spruce, which would be of great value, but 

 it was not the sort of timber that could 

 be shipped southwards. In Ontario the 

 estimate of the white and red pine that was 

 still the property of the crown was ten or 

 twelve billion feet, and if the present mill- 

 ing capacity was kept up it would not last 

 more than twelve to fifteen years. West- 

 ward, in the territory of Keewatin. while 

 there were large areas of spruce, there was 

 nothing comparable to the great forests 

 which formerly covered the whole of south- 

 ern Ontario. In the great virgin forests 

 which he had seen a quarter of a century ago 

 in the Rockies there had been enormous de- 

 vastation by fire. 



In British Columbia there were vast for- 

 ests, but the word illimitable was not ap- 

 plicable to them. Douglas fir was the most 

 valuable tree, but a glance at the northern 

 boundary of its growth showed that it was 

 not unlimited. The other immense areas 

 did not contain anything like the illimitable 

 quantity popular fancy attributed to them. 

 Mr. White said one of the features of the 

 day was the endeavor to get at the truth in 

 such matters, and this was part of the 

 work the Commission of Conservation was 

 trying to accomplish. The commission was 

 getting as detailed and accurate a report as 

 possible of what Canada had, and proposed 

 to tell the truth as it found it. 



Mr. R. H. Campbell. Dominion Director 

 of Forestry, as a past secretary, commended 

 the work of the present one. Taking up 

 Dr. Fernow 's story of early times he re- 

 minded his auditors of the work of William 

 Little of Montreal in 1882 and onward, and 

 of Mr. E. Stewart in starting the movement 

 for the Canadian Forestry Association in 

 1899. He traced its growth until the present 

 and saw a great field of usefulness before 

 the Association. 



The Value of B.C. Forests. 



Mr. H. R. MacMillan gave a very interest- 

 ing account of the formation of the pro- 

 vincial forest service in a manner which 

 appealed to the general public. He remind- 

 ed British Columbians that in their forests 

 they had an asset, which thus early in 

 the development of the service was yield- 

 ing an annual revenue of $2,600,000. As 

 indicative of the small size of the logs 

 with which the Eastern lumberman now 

 has to be content, Mr. MacMillan mentioned 

 that there are to-day in British Columbia 

 dozens of Eastern luml>erjacks who have 

 come out here because there are no longer 

 logs large enough in the woods to carry 

 them in the rivers. Between Lake Winni- 

 peg and the Rocky mountains there was 

 no lumber beyond a small local supply, and 

 it was certain that there would be developed 

 in the prairies an enormous market for the 

 forest products of this province. He be- 

 lieved that the tremendous extension of the 

 hinder industry would not reach its limit 

 until at least .$100,000,000 was brought in 

 annually by the sale of forest products for 

 distribution among the people of the pro- 

 vince. 



The chief forester explained very graphi- 

 cally the effect of denudation of hillsides 

 on the storage of water and the maintenance 

 of the flow of the rivers and streams, upon 

 which depended the utilization of the water- 

 powers, of Avhich this province had so many. 

 In the jiictures which were thrown on the 

 screen afterwards, the result which has fol- 

 lowed the destruction of forests in portions 

 of the States, in France and in other coun- 

 tries, was brought home. In concluding 



