14 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



to publish papers we must act. We are not specialists, we have not pursued the 

 studies which many of you have in geology, horticulture, all that pertains to trees 

 and forests, but at least we can be your auxiliaries. On our farms there are colonists, 

 farmers who may commit grave errors in this matter of the forests, in this matter 

 of the woods where they have their habitations; guidance should be given to these 

 honest people, prudence should be recommended to them. There are enterprises with 

 which they might be entrusted; they following the direction which we should indi- 

 cate to them. Tell us, gentlemen, that which it is proper to do and we will transmit 

 it. I declare to you we will transmit with joy your suggestions, your counsels to 

 those who are the friends and the best apostles of the forests, our farmers and our 

 colonists. 



I Ijave not assisted, for my own part, in these ravages of our forests, nor have 

 I seen what might be done for the preservation of our woods, but I have seen some- 

 thing beautiful, which nobody among you gentlemen has seen, I believe. It is per- 

 haps my exclusive privilege to bear testimony here in behalf of the good 

 work which you have undertaken. I have assisted, gentlemen, in the creation of 

 a forest ; I have seen the birth of a great forest of pines and firs ; and these little 

 saplings planted in the earth to the number of thousands, I have seen them grow 

 as going from year to year into our country places to carry the blessings of our relig- 

 ion, I have seen our dear little children grow. The fact is perhaps not entirely 

 unknown to you; Mgr. Laflamme has already brought it to your attention, last year 

 in Ottawa, and I believe that this part of his speech is one of the most interesting 

 pages that one can read in your annals. , 



You all know the charming village of Oka, situated on the banks of the Ottawa. 

 There are Indians there of whom the priests of St. Sulpice are the well known 

 protectors and benefactors. Now this village of Oka was exposed to terrible ravages 

 by the sand-hills at the foot of which it is built. In my childhood when I used to 

 go to this place to spend some weeks of the vacations, I remember having seen on 

 certain days whirlwinds of sand precipitating themselves from the sand-hills to- 

 wards the village which was sometimes menaced with engulf ment. At other times one 

 might see animals, in the barns, in the stables, almost drowned, so to speak, almost 

 drowned in sand. For a long time some means of arresting these veritable avalanches 

 was sought for. I might say that engineers, men of science had been there. They 

 had studied the problem and had been unable to furnish a solution. A priest pre- 

 sented himself, an old man of seventy-eight years to-day at that time he was about 

 sixty he studied the soil ; he asked if it were not possible to plant an entire forest 

 on these moving sands. Certain' pages of scientific books which he had read had made 

 him believe that the thing was perhaps not impossible ; in any case he could try the 

 experiment, and he tried it. And, gentlemen, with what successs! I wish that some 

 fine summer day you would go and see what is now at Oka in place of those sands of 

 which I have just spoken. 



