NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 115 



the water there, they hold the humidity within and under their branches, 

 keeping it in such a way that it does not go down quickly, but is held there, 

 so that it may be sent forward during the dryer times of summer, in order 

 that the farms may be fructuated and cultivated. In India, which was one 

 of the finest wooded countries the world has ever seen, and has had some of 

 the finest trees the world has ever interfered with, one of the peculiar things 

 is with regard to the palm tree, which is so luxuriant and abundant in all 

 these hot countries, I remember to have read years ago, one writer said, 

 "The palm tree loved the heat," and so it is in vegetation, if you choose to 

 trace it out, there is almost an intelligence within vegetation itself, and I 

 know, within my own knowledge, where a luxuriant vine grows up, and 

 where there is a tree five or six feet from it, that vine will reach out, en- 

 deavoring to catch a branch of the tree for support. How does the vine 

 know the tree is there ? It has a sentience in itself that causes it to move 

 forward. And so it is in reference to the trees destroyed in our own coun- 

 try. There is only one principle of life. The same principle of life that is 

 in man is in the insects, in the trees and in all we see around us that has life ; 

 and therefore it is that when the lumberman and the farmer cut too closely 

 into the forests, they are severing lives that ought to be allowed to live, on 

 the same principle that their own lives are preserved. 



Speaking of India, it has been found that where the mountain sides have 

 foeen denuded of trees, and the waters cast forth unduly, so that the country 

 cannot be kept in its proper state with reference to growth, it has been the 

 -cause of many of the famines in India and the same thing has taken place in 

 China. Therefore it is that we are called upon to look to the future and to 

 guard against these things. A man will go after the lish in a stream and 

 even follow them up to the spawning beds and so obliterate the fa'sh from the 

 -country. One of the reasons for this is that man only cares for the present. 

 There is not a man here tonight but what, if his country called for him jto go 

 forward and die on the field of battle for his country, would go then he 

 would be fighting for posterity but he would hardly sacrifice fifty cents for 

 the good of those who will come after us, when we are passed away. We 

 are defending our country in this Convention as truly as men defend it on 

 ,fche battle field, although we are doing it at less risk and very much less cost. 

 Therefore it is without going any further into this matter, and I am not 

 speaking to you tonight as I had intended to speak, but am only making 

 these few remarks to show you what is required even for the protection of 

 .agriculture if the trees are not kept for the farmer, the farm must become 

 4esolate and if the farmer strips his own farm of trees, he will make it still 



