CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 33 



securing profit. We ought to make them understand that it is their duty not 

 to act in such a manner as to cause this source of revenue do disappear forever; that 

 they should only demand of their forests each year the equivalent of the wood that 

 grows there; that they ought to use them in such a way as to improve them and 

 to increase their yield and not to ruin them. In one word, it is necessary to con- 

 vince them that their interest, well understood, demands that they renounce their 

 profits of to-day, high, I know, but transitory, and content themselves with more 

 modest gains, but such as shall always persist. We may hope to attain this result 

 provided that we use enough tact and prudence. Then our people will harvest 

 their forests as they do their cultivated fields without destroying them. 



Practically, it would perhaps be best to begin this education by counselling 

 farmers who are fairly prosperous to reforest the denuded portions of their lands, 

 those which bring in nothing from the agricultural point of view and on which one 

 should never have cut down the trees. But if we can find people open to this 

 advice, it is important to make them clearly understand that in doing this, they are 

 working mainly for their children, and that, if personally they can never dream of 

 profiting by a harvest which will not be ripe for forty or fifty years, their children 

 will enjoy it and bless their memory. To tell the truth, this idea of managing a 

 forest only to reap the benefit in a more or less distant future is one very difficult for 

 short-sighted people and those who think only of present interests to appreciate, 

 and one of those which we should endeavour with all our strength to spread among 

 the people. It is from this indeed that we may expect the most fruitful results. 

 For on the day when the people shall clearly comprehend that the forest can not 

 only last indefinitely but even increase its yield by means of rational management, 

 they will be the first, I am sure, to ask to be instructed in this matter and to follow 

 the scientific directions given them. 



From this point of view, the United States has set us an example which ought 

 to be studied and as far as possible imitated. Persuaded of the importance, for 

 the welfare of the nation, of preserving and improving the tracts of private wood-lots 

 the American government has created a special service whose object is to give to 

 owners all necessary advice for the attainment of this end. In response to a simple 

 request, the government sends to whomsoever may ask it, an expert in forestry 

 science who examines the lot to be planted or the piece of woodland to be develop- 

 ed. Having studied the conditions, the official forester then recommends to those 

 interested the best methods to be followed aijd from year to year himself superin- 

 tends their application. 



The contract between the Government and the owners is very simple. 

 The Government pays all the costs of examination and the owner pledges himself 

 to utilize his forest for his own personal profit, but following strictly the directions 

 which have been given him. If it happens that by reason of special circum- 

 stances he sees himself under the necessity of raising a little the amount of his 

 exploitation, if, for example, he has to meet certain unforeseen expenses, or to 

 compensate a defective harvest, the state forester is there to indicate the method. 

 It is then above all that his advice is valuable, since it permits the farmer to increase 

 his sale without compromising too seriously his forestal capital. Finally, as the 

 contracts between the Government and the owners are made intentionally and 

 exclusively for the advantage of the latter, the owners may break it after ten days' 

 notice, without disclosing their reasons to. the authorities. 



Could one pursue the same line of conduct here? It is not for me to answer. 

 A service of this nature demands a technical personnel which our Government 

 perhaps have not as yet at their disposal. There must be some means to meet 



