CAXADIAX FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 63 



fessions in all the parishes of Quebec, they would be furnished with exact ideas, 

 with clear notions, of which they would make use in their conversation an4 in 

 their little meetings with the farmers and inhabitants of their parishes ; they might 

 diffuse this science everywhere without much cost to the federal or the provincial 

 Government. All that is necessary, it seems to me, is that the Forestry Association 

 should take the initiative, that it should organize these lectures, that it should 

 commission some of its members, the most capable, the most competent, those 

 who have the art of speaking most simply, and of making themselves intelligible 

 to the young, and to those who are not scientists, to infuse this science in continuous 

 streams into the minds of our youth. We have in our Catholic schools large aca- 

 demic halls where lectures and concerts are given, where dramas are sometimes 

 performed ; these halls would be open to you if you would come there with lantern 

 slides and very simple lectures, and attempt to instruct these children and to put 

 them in touch with the needs of the Province of Quebec as regards the preservation 

 or the replanting of our forests and of those w r ood-lots of work-wood or firewood, 

 which still exist on the farmers' lands. 



This proposition comes perhaps before its time; it is perhaps not immediately 

 realizable; any way I submit it most earnestly to your consideration, and I hope 

 that some day or other you will be able to put it into practice. In any case, be 

 certain of one thing, namely, that if you wish to change public opinion, you must 

 touch it in all its component parts. These congresses, I well believe, particularly if 

 they are followed by persons who are interested in forestry questions, may produce 

 excellent results, but the city of Montreal is very large and you do not reach a great 

 number of people. If you would come into our Universities, if you would come 

 into our colleges, if you would come into our higher schools, and if you would speak 

 there a language which we are capable of understanding, and if you yourselves 

 have the fire of the propaganda which you wish to spread every where, it seems to me 

 that it would be a pleasure for us to follow you ; for, if I do not deceive myself, and 

 in spite of my inexperience, I believe that there is here, in this assembly and among 

 your delegations, an amount of practical experience by which everybody might pro- 

 fit. And for my part, entrusted as I am with a work of education in the Province 

 of Quebec, not only do I congratulate you, gentlemen, on the work which you 

 have accomplished, but I thank you in the name of the youth and the prosperity of 

 the beautiful Province of Quebec, which, I believe, is the one most interested in the 

 work which you have undertaken. 



The PRESIDENT. Canon Dauth has put us on the right track in saying that 

 we have to catch them young to teach them. If the schools were interested in 

 forestry there would be a great many more people in this room to-day. It seems 

 as if the people only took the question up when they had reached a certain age, 

 while Canon Dauth shows us that these questions should be taken up at a very 

 early age, so as to instil into the young people of this country a love of tree culture. 



