CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 75 



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At this very time, the fear, and often the certainty, of seeing themselves sooner 

 or later displaced by colonists leads many of them to commit execesses. It is 

 important then to guarantee to our forest industry the integrity of its domains. If 

 we wish our wood commerce to prosper we must make sure of continued supplies. 



The sole and only means of putting an end to these dissensions is to separate 

 absolutely the forest soils from the agricultural soils. This classification 

 was begun some years ago and I can assure you that it is the desire of the present 

 government to hasten the work and to carry it on with as much impartiality as 

 possible. This classification of soils will have the effect of considerably reducing 

 the territories under license. If we estimate this diminution at about ten million 

 acres there will not remain more than thirty-five million in the second group of 

 forest lands. 



WHAT IS THE FOREST VALUE OF THESE DISTRICTS? 



This question has been put and discussed very variously. Some assure us 

 that we have inexhaustible forests and others that a dearth of wood will soon over- 

 take us. Looking at the case of the Americans who themselves owned so called 

 inexhaustible forests, and who, haying exploited them by methods identical with 

 ours, are suffering to-day from a lack of wood, one may be inclined to accept the 

 latter view, but I do not think that famine is as near to us as that. 



NEED FOR CAREFUL MANAGEMENT. 



It is certain that a great part of our forests has been ravaged by fire, and 

 ^another large part has been greatly impoverished by vicious exploitation, but there 

 still remains considerable which has been carefully managed. There are also a 

 large number of timber limits which have not yet been entirely exploited. There 

 still remain to us large quantities of wood in these forests. Estimating the lowest 

 yield per acre at a little less than 2000 feet board measure of commercial wood of 

 all sorts, we should have nearly seventy-five billion feet, board measure. If these 

 forests were exploited on a scientific basis, one billion and a half feet at least might 

 be cut annually on these lands and that without injuring or impoverishing the 

 population, but rather the improvement of their condition. The actual cut now 

 reaches nearly a billion feet. There still remains a large margin and we have no 

 need to entertain anxiety on this account regarding the limits I have just men- 

 tioned. Our forest wealth is still considerable, but it must be admitted that it is 

 much reduced. Wood is less abundant and especially less accessible than formerly. 

 The logs floated down on water courses each year are smaller. The exploiters 

 5re obliged to work always farther and farther from the basis of operation Regions 

 formerly neglected on account of the difficulty of access are now exploited. In 

 spite of the introduction of substitutes, such as spruce for pine, etc., or the improve- 

 ments of transportation methods, the price of wood rises steadily. It is undeniable 

 that wood is becoming scarce. Thus, it is not a question of finding new substitutes 

 or of further improving methods of manufacture, but of renewing and improving the 

 quality of the raw product, for it is that which is beginning to decrease. 



Our colonists and our railroads have often been accused of having ruined our 

 forests by causing immense fires. This is in part true, but the small exploiters, 

 as Senator Edwards said last year, have also transgressed by leaving the ground 

 encumbered with debris, which rendered the fires still more disastrous. Not long 

 ago only one log was taken from a tree where we now take five or six. The rest 



