16 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



I can only give this example, but it seems to me that it is worth while. That 

 which has been done at Oka, could it not be done in other places? Since the prob- 

 lem has obtained a solution there, it might well receive it equally in other parts of 

 the country. 



At all events, gentlemen, if we are not all destined to create forests, we are all 

 constrained to work to preserve, to protect and to enrich the superb forests which 

 Providence has given us. 



The PRESIDENT. I must very heartily thank His Grace for the practical lesson 

 that he has given us. I am considerably astonished to find that we are able to 

 learn so practical a lesson from the Church which Monseigneur Bruchesi represents 

 I think what he suggests is a very good thing, that this Association should commem- 

 orate the work Monseigneur Lefebvre has done. When you think that out of 

 65,000 trees planted by his efforts, only 5,000 were lost, it is something to be re- 

 corded, and I feel proud that such a thing has been done in the province of Quebec. 

 I feel sure that you will all agree with me in giving a most hearty vote of thanks to 

 Monseigneur Bruchesi for what he has taught us here this morning. (Applause). 







I am now going to call upon the Honourable Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agri- 

 culture, to address the meeting. 



THE HONOURABLE SYDNEY FISHER'S ADDRESS. 



Your Honour Sir Louis, Monseigneur Bruchesi, Mr. President, Ladies and 

 Gentlemen, I am very glad indeed to be present at the opening meeting of this 

 forestry conference in the great city of Montreal. I feel it is very appropriate 

 that we should have a meeting of this kind in the commercial metropolis of the 

 country. It is true that to a large extent, the commercial men of this city have 

 not shown much interest in forestry, but I venture to think that there is nobody in 

 the length and breadth of our country who is more directly interested in this work 

 than are the great commercial men of this city. We have had, for a long time, the 

 advantage of the study of this important question by political economists, by those 

 who are responsible for the legislation of the country, and by the students in our 

 universities and schools. But it is high time that the man on the street, the average 

 man who is interested in the business of the land, should take up this question, so 

 as to understand it sufficiently, at all events, to induce him to give his support to 

 the governments which are working in the direction of the conservation of our 

 forests, and of the students and political economists who are pointing the way for 

 those in authority to act. 



I am glad to-day to see the representatives of the King in our Province of Que- 

 bec present, to open this conference. It is fitting indeed that the head of the state 

 should do this work. Especially is this the case in regard to forestry, because, in tne 

 larger sense at all events, the forestry of Canada applies chiefly and primarily to 



