28 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



battle for existence for over two score years and which by that conflict have 

 nearly fitted themselves for the use of the lumberman. This is the woods- 

 man's growing crop and should be looked after by him with the same care 

 that the agriculturist bestows on his immature field crops. 



There are several reasons why forestry claims very careful attention 

 from the State. First, on account of the communal interest in the forestry 

 of a country being so large as compared with the individual interest. The 

 popular idea of the value of the forests, as only for the actual commercial 

 value of the wood to the individual who owns the land, is as far from the 

 truth as it would be to assert that the only value of water in the great 

 economy of nature is restricted to the use made of it for drinking purposes, 

 entirely ignoring the fertilizing effect of rain, the power derived from the 

 waterfall, or the great benefits it affords as a means of transportation. 



It is recognized as a principle in law that no individual has a right to 

 divert water from its natural course, and when we consider that by destroying 

 the forest, natural conditions are interfered with at the very source of supply 

 many times more injurious to the community than changing the course of a 

 stream, it is evident that an enlightened forest policy, by which the conditions 

 at these sources of supply are not prejudicially interfered with, is a legitimate 

 matter for the state, as representing the community, to deal with, but, as 

 before stated, in our case at the present day, with the land at most of the 

 great water-sheds still in the hands of the Government, it requires only a 

 proper land and forest policy rightly administered to ensure for this country 

 what older and more thickly settled countries can attain only by purchase 

 of the land from the individual owners. 



Another reason why forestry belongs especially to the state is owing to- 

 the length of time required for trees to attain maturity. In order that an 

 ordinary forest may attain its greatest commercial value, as before stated, a 

 long period of from 50 to 100 years is required, so that there is little incentive 

 to the average individual looking only to his own immediate interest to 

 engage in an enterprise such as tree planting, as a commercial venture, when 

 he knows that his career in this world will have closed long before the return 

 for his labor can be realized. With the nation the case is very different. It 

 is impossible for the individual to realize his return owing to the brevity of 

 human life, but this standard of measurement does not apply to the nation 

 whose existence is calculated not by years but by centuries. 



Every acre of land should be utilized for the production of that variety 



