to 50 million acres. A liberal allowance will bring the stand to about the 

 same amount as is still found in the East, namely, 300 billion feet, another 

 seven years' supply for our neighbours which they have to a large extent 

 already ftju.nipld: ^vbfcA-~^/&*$ 



The vast remaining territory no doubt contains timber, and sometimes 

 of good character, but this is all needed for the development of the coun- 

 try itself and does for the most part not occur in such quantities and loca- 

 tions as would invite commercial exploitation except for home use. 



These figures we must admit are mere reasonable guesses, and the 

 absence of more reliable information is rather a reflection on the managers 

 of your national property, and suggests the first step of reform which every 

 provincial and the Dominion Government should take, namely, to secure a 

 descriptive forest survey, a taking of stock of the property of which hitherto 

 they have disposed without any adequate knowledge. 



Such forest surveys (which are not surveyor's surveys) can be made 

 much less expensively than is usually believed, much of the information 

 being already in existence but not compiled for use. 



It shouloj be collected, not as it has been hitherto, by timberworkers, 

 merely with a view as to where the commercial exploitable timber is to be 

 found, but with a view of furnishing the basis for plans of future manage- 

 ment of the forest area as a whole. 



This work, to be sure, requires experts and these are as yet in existence 

 only in small numbers, yet there are enough to make at least a beginning, 

 and the Dominion Government has, I believe, made a laudable beginning. 



The next thing to be done is the formulation of plans of future man- 

 agement and that involves a scrutiny of the existing timber limit licenses 

 with a view of their eventual termination and at least more specific regula- 

 tions as regards the cutting and taking care of the debris gradually bring- 

 ing them in line for conservative forest management. 



It must be realized that no general rule as for instance a universal 

 diameter limit, or even of the burning of debris, will work satisfactorily in 

 all cases. Each case requires specific consideration and description. And 

 especially in working the untouched limits and forest reservations, in which 

 probably all the remaining unlicensed timber, or, at least, all non-agricul- 

 tural lands should be placed, proper working plans should be made and 

 followed, i.e., forestry practised from the start. 



That these requirements can only be met by the employment of techni- 

 cally educated men is self-evident. Their absence may in part account for 

 the absence or slow progress in the movements indicated. I feel, therefore, 

 that the establishment of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of 

 Toronto, for the education of such technical men, was one of the most neces- 

 sary first steps, and I also welcome a similar step in the University of ISTew 

 Brunswick, although I am not an advocate of multiplication, but rather 

 of increase in quality of educational institution. 



The reasons for the scanty results of the long continued propaganda on 

 behalf of conservative forest management, for the delay of a vigorous 

 reform would, then, appear to be. 



1. Lack of realization on the part of governments that supplies are 

 rapidly waning and that, hence, necessity for conservation has arrived. 



2. Lack of realization that the forest resource of Canada can and must 

 be made permanent, because of soil and climatic conditions, and because of 

 its influence upon waterpowers. 



3. Lack of personnel to inaugurate and carry on any forest policies 

 involving- technical knowledge. 



