NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 57 



The preservation of wood. That we do not go into very deeply, beyond 

 teaching the boys a little varnishing, shellacing and polishing, and a little 

 about painting. 



The field walks form a very important part of the work in many of our 

 manual training schools, especially in the consolidated schools, where the 

 field work is followed out in connection with all their studies. I have here 

 some leaves collected by the boys, and all these folios I have on the table 

 were sent down by the Woodstock Manual Training School, which is typical 

 of the rest of our schools. These leaves are collected by the pupils, and 

 that means an interest in the trees and an interest in the walks also. Visits 

 to mills, cabinet factories, glue factories and places of that description are 

 also made and serve to lend additional interest to this side of the work. 

 Where we are fortunately situated near a lumber yard we often get a great 

 deal of help. In some towns the merchants have gone out of their way to 

 assist us ; regular classes are arranged for, and the instructor is allowed to 

 take the pupils through the mills and someone is told off' to guide them 

 through, and thus a very profitable half day is spent in that way. 



Then the collection of specimens for the schools is another important 

 part of the work. You would be surprised at the number of different 

 woods the boys will collect. I was called on the other day to judge of 

 collections made by the boys, and one boy had over one hundred different 

 varieties of wood in his collection. Of course he was situated near the coast, 

 and he had a whole lot of Southern woods in addition to the commoner 

 native woods. As I say, he had over one hundred varieties, and as far as 

 possible he had named them and had looked them up in whatever books 

 were accessible to him, and in a general way had acquired a good deal of 

 information by the mere collecting of these specimens. 



As I remarked, our chief aim is an educative aim, and these lessons are 

 carried on side by side with the lessons in drawing and bench work, chiefly 

 with the view of making the boy's bench and tool work more intelligible to 

 him. That is their main aim ; but in a secondary sense I believe they have 

 an important bearing upon this very much larger question now before us, 

 and I present, therefore, as our contribution to this large question the 1 

 that we are able to do in a secondary way in our public Manual Training 

 Schools towards arousing some interest in this most important, this vital, 

 question to us in Canada of the conservation and preservation o 

 wealth. 



