THE CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



217 



is there is doubt as to whether we 

 are as well provided with trees, in 

 proportion to our population, as we 

 were fifty years ago. 



"We ought not to delay a single day 

 longer than is necessary to pass the 

 requisite legislation, to place all the 

 trees upon the streets under munici- 

 pal control. A thousand examples 

 showing the wisdom of doing so might 

 be cited. It is the only sensible and 

 the only business way. The streets are 

 a part of the beauty and comfort of 

 our highways, and it is just as necessary 

 that they should be subject to public 

 authority as the sidewalks, the paving 

 and the curbing. We will never realize 

 the great advantage of trees to a city 

 until we take this step. 



"Even now the tree butcher is start- 

 ing upon his annual rounds, and in 

 the absence of any public control, in 

 the next few weeks, he will mar and 

 maim and disfigure and kill thousands 

 of trees that might otherwise grow and 

 spread their branches, furnish grateful 



shade and beautify the city. He knows 

 nothing about trees, their growth and 

 maintenance. He simply hacks away 

 at random and in ninety-nine cases out 

 of a hundred he disfigures the tree, 

 stunts and distorts it and dooms it to 

 a lingering death. To prove this, the 

 pedestrian upon our streets only needs 

 to cast his eye aloft to see how more than 

 half the trees have been mistreated and 

 tortured out of all normal resemblance 

 of arboreal health and symmetry." 



These are words of wisdom. Far 

 too few people realize that shade trees 

 have a value beyond that of giving 

 shade and adding attractiveness to a 

 street. They also increase the value of 

 real estate. It is conservatively esti- 

 mated that each shade tree increases 

 property values at the rate of $20.00 a 

 tree. Therefore if Allentown acquired 

 100,000 trees as advised by the Chron- 

 icle and News her real estate values 

 would increase approximately two mil- 

 lion dollars. Yet how does this appeal 

 to property owners? 



COURT ORDERS FORESTRY PRACTICED 



THE Supreme Court of Maine in 

 a recent decision practically 

 insists upon the practice of 

 forestry in the administration 

 of trust estates, a provision calculated 

 to get the greatest value possible out of 

 sections of such estates as are best 

 suited for the production of timber. 

 The decision was in the case of an 

 estate of "wild lands," held in trust for 

 the production of salable timber, 

 but no directions were given by the 



testator as to how the lands were to be 

 operated. The Court by Chief Justice 

 Savage therefore directed the trustee 

 "to operate the timberland according 

 to the precepts of good forestry, and 

 not so as to reduce the quantity of 

 available timber below what it was at 

 the commencement of the trust." 



Such a decision cannot be too strongly 

 commended to the attention of the 

 courts of other States and to trustees 

 of estates bearing timber land. 



THE CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By Ellwood Wilson 



January was a busy month in forestry circles. 

 The most important event was the meeting of 

 the Conservation Commission held in Ottawa 

 on the nineteenth of January at which Sir 

 Clifford Sifton, the Chairman, presided. 

 Very interesting papers were read on mineral 

 resources, water power development, town 

 planning and other important topics. Sir 

 Clifford Sifton in his opening address gave a 

 resume oft he Commission's activities during the 

 past year and of the general forestry situation. 

 The fire season of 1914 was the worst since 1910 



and had it not been for the fire protective asso- 

 tions established during the last three years 

 the loss might have reached the proportions 

 of a National disaster. While the results show 

 that these organizations are effective, more 

 money needs to be spent by them. This 

 should not be looked on in the light of an 

 expense but as an investment which will pay 

 high dividends in the future. 



The inventory begun in 1913 by the Com- 

 mission has been continued and goes to show 

 that the resources of Canada in timber have 



