NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 15 



The Hon. A. R. McClelan, of Riverside, Albert Co., then read the 

 following paper : 



HON. A. R. McCLELAN. 



The growth and preservation of trees has become a subject of many 

 phases and of transcendant interest to exporters of wood as well as to 

 countries consuming it, as well as the people generally. Except in Germany, 

 however, and one or two other of the older nations, the study of Forestry 

 in its scientific relations is of comparatively recent date. The literature of 

 Great Britain, except in relation to India, contains little on the subject. 

 France has furnished a few works. Italy scarcely any. The United States 

 have published one way and another a vast amount of valuable information, 

 and President Roosevelt has given the weight of his great influence to its 

 promotion. Canadians, none too soon, are becoming aroused, and the Federal 

 as well as Provincial Governments seern alive to its importance. It has been 

 largely with governments as with the individuals who make them. The real 

 value of many of the country's resources are tardily recognized. It is a case 

 of foresight coming afterwards. If Forestry in its strictest form had been 

 considered fifty years ago, how much better off would we all be now. Even 

 if the right of eminent domain had then .been applied, and private ownership 

 controlled by law, millions would have been saved to this Province, and 

 everybody benefitted. At this time there is less need of interference with 

 private rights, for the high price of the product protects the trees from 

 needless destruction while the reports of these discussions must tend to the 

 same end. 



New Brunswick still retains for controllable public advantage between 

 six and seven million acres of the "Forest Primeval," a larger proportion of 

 the whole area than is usually found in well settled districts. The Common- 

 wealth of Australia is said to have 110 million acres of woodland, and only 

 18 millions or about one-sixth reserved for Forestry purposes, while New 

 Brunswick retains over one-third of the whole Provincial area. Professor 

 Fernow, of Cornell University, published in 1902 a very exhaustive and 

 valuable work on the -Economics of Forestry," from which I have made 

 extracts. He points out the growing demand for wood^oods while civiliza- 

 tion advances and industrial activity increases, as shown by statistics of the 

 imports of woods to European countries. Great Britain is almost wholly 

 supplied by importation and the quantity used there has steadily increased 

 year bv year. France is a still more striking instance of an increasing 



