CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 21 



is most necessary for the cattle. While within the memory of many men living 

 there used to be an abundant, constant supply of fodder for the animals on the 

 farms, to-day that is not the case, and this unfortunate change has been caused by the 

 wasteful cutting away of the forests. It is time that the farmers and the owners 

 of private properties, wherever they have lost uncultivable land, should immediate- 

 ly set to work to plant that laud, and bring it back to its original condition, thus sup- 

 plying those forest lands, so necessary not only for fuel and to beautify the landscape, 

 but actually to supply them with the moisture necessary for their crops through the 

 summer. And if they -do not change their methods in this respect I venture to say 

 to the farmers of Ontario and Quebec that their agriculture will decrease and that 

 they cannot hope to be as successful in the future as in the past. (Applause). 



A word or two specially with regard to this Province of Quebec. We here, in 

 Quebec, have the natural conditions most suitable to prevent the conditions I 

 have just pictured. The great cultivable section of Quebec Province lies on each 

 side of the St. Lawrence River. To the south we have the alluvial stretches of 

 the counties bordering the south bank, and on the north we have the long strip 

 stretching from Ottawa to Quebec of good cultivable land, between the Laurentian 

 Mountains and the rivers. There lie the agricultural riches of the Province of 

 Quebec, and it is necessary for the preservation of the richness of that piece of land 

 that the rivers and streams in it should be kept at a constant flow throughout the 

 whole season. It is necessary that the people should have a constant supply of 

 good wholesome water the whole season through for themselves and their live stock. 

 We have the natural conditions to give it to them, if we are only sensible in the con- 

 servation of those conditions. Take the southern bank of the St. Lawrence. While 

 there is a broad plain of almost dead level land alongside that river in that valley 

 which is suitable for agricultural work, but immediately to the south of that plain 

 we have the mountainous regions of the eastern townships, the Adirondacks and 

 further east the Maine Mountains extending into Canada. If we preserve the for- 

 ests in that mountainous country, we have all the conditions necessary to supply 

 an abundant, constant source of water to the plains between them and the river. 

 Therefore I venture to say for the Province of Quebec, that it is absolutely necessary 

 that the hillsides and mountain regions near the American frontier should be 

 carefully preserved in forests and in blocks of forest land, so that the sources of the 

 streams which flow into the St. Lawrence from the south, will be maintained as a 

 reservoir for the water supply of that country, so that we may be able to utilize 

 the blocks of forest lands on those mountains and hills to the best advantage of the 

 people, who own them and of the country at large. This, if done under proper 

 forestry conditions, will continue indefinitely the lumbering industry, and the cut- 

 ting of pulpwood in these regions in addition to benefiting the agricultural condi- 

 tions below. 



Again on the northern side of the St. Lawrence we have the strip of cultivable 

 land between the Laurentains and the river. But back of it in the Laurentian 



