NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 169 



What will be the cost of such an organization a'nd where will men to fill 

 it be found ? To the first question my answer is that whatever it may cost 

 to properly protect and administer the great forest property, of the province, 

 the expenditure is certainly worth while. As for the second, my acquaint- 

 ance in New Brunswick leads me to think that the men required are already 

 here, waiting only leadership and opportunity to form an organization of the 

 most effective kind. There are no better woodsmen than those of New 

 Brunswick, and no better stock from which to make foresters in the technical 

 sense than the young graduates of your University afford. In your Crown 

 Land office too, if I understand it aright, are men who for many years past 

 have managed the provincial lands with great capacity and zeal. Give those 

 men, or men like them, sufficient freedom, means and backing, and the pro- 

 blems of protection and of management will in my judgment, be put in the 

 way of an early and correct solution. 



Education is a most important phase of the forestry movement popu- 

 lar education more so perhaps than that of the professional forester. I 

 would gladly talk on that subject but others are treating it most effectively, 

 and I will therefore turn iny attention for the few remaining moments dur- 

 ing which I shall speak to two special matters. 



First, as to the character and utility of technically trained foresters. 

 The word "forester" carries very different implications in different places. A 

 forester in one place is simply a practical woodsman ; in another place the 

 term may apply to a supposed great authority whose word on the line of his 

 subject is not to be disputed. In another place again, the term by common 

 application may mean a mild crank or enthusiast interested in certain things 

 and perhaps interesting himself, but having Httle or no actual influence on 

 practical affairs. 



It is inevitable that this confusion should exist at the present time, but 

 it is equally true that if the term is to remain and to stand for anything, it 

 has got to come out of the mists and define itself into something tangible 

 and serviceable to the people. And the idea which some at least hold who 

 are connected with the profession, the ideal which I personally hold as a 

 teacher of forestry, is that the forester must be closely allied to the engineer, 

 must be in his line a thoroughly equipped and efficient man, in actual charge 

 of woods and woods operations. Sound scientific training enters into that 

 idea and actual responsibility and experience are involved in it as well. 



