1092 



Canadian Forestrij Journal, May, 1917 



timber lands amounts to seven million 

 dollars. The production of the forest 

 is therefore one form of production 

 which is worth giving consideration 

 to and assisting in the interest of the 

 development of Canada. 



The ciuantity and value of the pro- 

 ducts from the forests depends much 

 more on proper management based on 

 scientific principles than the public 

 generally are aware. As an example, 

 Saxony, between 1817 and 1893, in- 

 creased its output per acre from the 

 forest lands of the kingdom by fifty 

 per cent., increased the proportion of 

 timber from seventeen to seventy- 

 nine per cent., increased the gross 

 revenue from $1.75 to $6.67, ancl the 

 net revenue from 95 cents to $4.37. 



Investigation Work in Canada 



In Canada the State has recognized 

 the necessity for scientific investiga- 

 tions of the natural resources of the 

 country in the field and in the labora- 

 tory. 



The Department of Agriculture 

 was established for the purpose of 

 scientific research in matters relating 

 to agriculture and the many divisions 

 into which such work inevitably de- 

 velops have now grown into a large 

 well-equipped and progressive de- 

 partment with an expenditure of 

 nearly four million dollars per annum. 

 It should be noted that the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture is almost wholly 

 an investigative department, not an 

 administrative one. It does not 

 administer the agricultural lands of 

 the country. The agricultural lands 

 it does administer are the experimen- 

 tal farms where experimentation is 

 the main purpose. 



The Department of Mines simil- 

 arly was organized to make investi- 

 gations in connection with the mineral 

 resources of the country. No more 

 than the Department of Agriculture 

 is it an administrative department. 

 Its expenditure of about eight hund- 

 red thousand dollars per annum is 

 devoted through the two divisions of 

 the Geological Survey and the Mines 

 Branch to investigation in the field 

 and in the laboratory for the study 

 and development of the mines of 

 Canada. And it has a long and use- 

 ful history of achievement behind it. 



Where Policies Need Bracing 

 In connection with the forest 

 wealth of the country, a resource 

 which bad management or ne- 

 glect can destroy so easily and 

 which responds so readily to 

 wise management by increase in 

 production, there has been no 

 special provision for scientific in- 

 vestigation until the recent es- 

 tablishment of the Forest Pro- 

 ducts Laboratories of Canada in 

 connection with the Forestry 

 Branch of the Department of the 

 Interior. But these laboratories 

 only deal in research on the dead 

 material and the expenditure for 

 this purpose which is about 

 $60,000 is small compared with 

 either of the investigative de- 

 partments mentioned. But fur- 

 ther there is no special provision 

 made for scientific research in the 

 forest, such desultory research 

 as is carried on being merely an 

 incident to administrative work 

 in the management of the forest 

 lands of the country. There are 

 no forest experiment stations in 

 Canada. There is no broad, 

 sound, scientific basis being laid 

 for the management of the for- 

 ests and the lack of it is being 

 felt and will be felt more as time 

 goes on, as the drain upon the 

 forests continues to increase as 

 it is doing steadily to-day, and 

 as the present low average of 

 production by growth in the. for- 

 est consequent on forest fires 

 and unscientific management is 

 realized. The time is surely 

 ripe for providing in some meas- 

 ure for formally beginning the 

 scientific investigation of the 

 forest and its life processes 

 which are so essential and fun- 

 damental. 



Some of the biggest forest fires be- 

 gan with a single wisp of flame. At 

 the start, a child could stamp it out. 

 At the climax not a battalion of 

 forest rangers could stay its vicious 

 sweep. Whole townships pass be- 

 neath the pall of smoke and smother- 

 ing heat. Farms and villages are 

 turned to shambles. Lives and untold 

 property heap up the awful penalty. 



