18 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



as to these procedures is also required, and this would also entail ex- 

 penditure. It may be pointed out in passing that a first-class forest 

 manager is only fully occupied when the planning for and management 

 of a tract of 50,000 to 100,000 acres and more is involved, hence it is 

 doubtful whether a municipality could employ a competent man fully. 

 The size of the property influences the financial success of the manage- 

 ment also in other ways, namely, when the gain from the good acres can 

 be used to recuperate the poor acres. This is, in part, the secret of the 

 financial and managerial success of the German forest administrations. 

 Moreover, a successful forestry business requires a long continued and 

 persistent plan, which, with the shifting conditions of municipal ad- 

 ministration, is not very likely to be followed. Even in Germany, the 

 success of municipal forest administration — and it is a thorough suc- 

 cess — is secured only by a more or less strict State supervision. The 

 best results from a financial point of view in municipal forests, are 

 secured in Baden, where the State manages the municipal forest pro- 

 perties for a stated sum per acre paid by the municipality. Altogether, 

 the financial ability and especially the patience of the mimicipality 

 in waiting for returns, will be taxed, if a real management of these 

 properties for sustained yield is to be inaugurated. 



Government Ownership. — It is here that the co-operation of the 

 financially strong government, with its superior credit and organi- 

 zation, is needed. If, as appears probable from the appointment 

 of a provincial forester, the provincial government assumes its 

 responsibility for the future of the timber resources of the 

 province, this region offers a most promising first field for 

 action. A plan should be drawn up for recovering licensed lands 

 and for dividing them into units to facilitate management, some to 

 be managed by the province and some by the municipalities. The plan 

 should allow for the provision of technical advice for their management, 

 and for the furnishing of such financial assistance as may be necessary 

 through a mtmicipal and state bonding scheme. The rights of super- 

 vision and participation in eventual returns should be retained by the 

 province. Some such plan of co-operation should obviously be elabor- 

 ated ; the province selecting for transfer to the municipality such tracts 

 as entail merely protection, and undertaking the management of the 

 more complicated tracts as its own reserves. 



The first step for the Province to take would appear to be to re- 

 possess itself of the licensed lands which have practically ceased to 

 produce the quantity of logs contemplated under the original licenses. 

 The next thing would be to impose upon the timber limit holders, who 

 have still some valuable timber left, such conditions as would prevent 

 th e jeopardizing and the destruction of the property itself. 



