SUGGESTIONS FOE MANAGEMENT BY GOVEENMENT. 195 



present, if for no other reason, because we have no agents, or class of 

 persons who could be employed as such, that have received the special 

 training necessary for the due performance of such a duty. 



There is another consideration at this point that deserves thoughtful 

 attention. There are few professions in Europe that require more thor- 

 ough training or careful preliminary practice under competent direction 

 than that of the official forester. A mistake in sowing or planting a field- 

 crop may be corrected the next year, and the worst that can happen is 

 the loss of one season. But in deciding upon the management of a forest, 

 we forecast the interests of a long period — it may be a century or more 

 of time — and an error in judgment, an act from incompetence, may pre- 

 judice the results of many years. In fact no person should be intrusted 

 with such a charge unless known to be qualilied. It is equally true that 

 no young man would select such a profession unless he knew with some 

 certainty that, upon passing the required examinations and probation, 

 he wonld be sure of employment through life with a reasonable salary, 

 sufficient to provide for the wants of old age, or, what is equivalent, pro- 

 vision for these wants when his working days are passed. 



These inducements are offered in Europe, but cannot be at present or 

 for years to come with us. The aspirant for the State forest service in 

 Europe, once fairly appointed, and sustaining his reputation for capacity 

 and fidelity, has as reasonable a prospect of continuance, as if in the 

 regular military or naval service. He needs only first the privilege of 

 appearing for competitive examination. If he meets the requirements 

 of the school and passes successfully through the course and subsequent 

 probation, in which his ability to apply in practice the precepts of the 

 school are tested, he knows that he will not need the influence of patrons 

 to secure him place in the beginning of his career, or promotion after- 

 ward, according to the rules of the service, and as his merits may deserve. 

 If by preference or circumstances he leaves his profession, his education 

 would probably be as useful to him in civil life as that imparted in the 

 military or naval academy, but more particularly for pursuits involving 

 the propagation of trees or the use of forest products. He may become 

 a nurseryman or a private planter, but these employments require capital 

 when carried on extensively, and some years must elapse before a return 

 can be realized. We have as yet no land-holders who give certain em- 

 l)loyment to professional foresters; no great forests that the owners 

 would undertake to manage according to the rules of the profession. 

 There is, therefore, no inducement for spending years of special study- 

 where the chances of employment are precarious, and so long as forestry 

 remains in its present rude and elementary condition among us, there is 

 more to be gained by teaching its general principles to many than its 

 thorough details to afeiv. 



But the leasing of timber privileges, rules for the proper working, and 

 removal of the products, and attention to the preservation of a young 

 growth, at least by preventing injuries from cattle or depredations of 

 any considerable amount, are matters easily prescribed, and not difficult 

 to enforce. They require no special qualilicatiou beyond honesty and a 

 fair business talent, and this system would at least keep in being the 

 forests which will be needed in future, and which may hereafter be 

 managed under systems that we might wish, rather than hope, at pres- 

 ent to apply. The system rightly managed could not fail of being more 

 thanself-supportitig from the first, and might, under favorable conditions, 

 prove a source of revenue,^ while our iorest estates would still remain 



1 The operations of the system of leasing timber privileges on crown lands in the 

 provincea of Ontario and Quebec are shown elsewhere in this report. 



