. CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 47 



NEED FOR FOREST SURVEYS. 



The third great problem will naturally be to gradually place all the reserves 

 under management designed to make them perpetual producers of wood crops, 

 improve their condition and make them regulate the flow of water in our streams 

 for irrigation and industrial purposes. Before they can be placed under such 

 management, however, it will be necessary to study their condition, i.e., to make 

 regular forest surveys. In conducting these surveys it will be impossible to lay 

 down cast iron rules, because of the widely varying conditions. The important 

 thing is to thoroughly understand the different methods of making such surveys 

 and to know which one gives the best solution of the particular problem presented. 



QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY FOR A FOREST ENGINEER. 



Thus it appears that the forest engineer is constantly called upon to deal with 

 problems of a decidedly practical nature. He is not a mere botanist let loose to 

 air his knowledge at the expense of others; neither is he a fire ranger, a lumberman, 

 a sportsman, an arboriculturist, a dendrologist, a sylviculturist or a political econo- 

 mist. He must understand ALL these phases of the questions he is constantly called 

 upon to deal with many of them of tremendous magnitude and far-reaching 

 importance. His profession touches life at many points, and it would be decidedly 

 unsafe to follow his recommendations if they were not based upon a careful con- 

 sideration of the factors likely to affect the general result. From this, I think it 

 should be plain that the academic training of a forest engineer should be so designed 

 that it will give him a clear view of the whole field of Forestry Science, and thus 

 enable him to get a proper conception of the relationships of things that at first 

 sight do not seem to be related even in the remotest degree. Without this 

 conception he will be decidedly unpractical; with it, he will be thoroughly practical, 

 in the larger and better sense of the term. Regarding his field training, there is 

 only one way to acquire it, namely, by experience in the woods. No amount of 

 reading or theorizing can give him this experience. It must be learned at first 

 hand, but there can scarcely be any doubt that the man who goes into the woods 

 with the broad general outlook that a thorough academic training in the Science 

 of Forestry gives him, will acquire this kind of knowledge very quickly, and, what 

 is of more importance, know how to apply it in cases where the man without simi- 

 lar training would utterly fail, and thus prove himself thoroughly unpractical. 



Such then, is the argument in favor of placing technically trained men in 

 charge of all important surveys made for the purpose of studying the condition of 

 our Forest Reserves, so that we may know how to manage them intelligently, im- 

 prove their condition, and make them produce wood crops for all time. 



DISCUSSION. 

 The PRESIDENT. I will now ask Mgr. Racicot to open the discussion. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, When I was invited to come to 

 assist in this meeting of business men, I thought of coming to instruct myself 

 rather than to instruct you. Certainly I admire what you have done for the good 

 of the country. You work perhaps in your personal interests, but in working for 



