78 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



crops. In the case of agricultural crops one year is sufficient, while in that of 

 timber about one hundred is required. 



This great difference of time involves many questions worthy of attention. 

 In the first place, if through some misfortune, this year's crops should fail to mature 

 or be destroyed, it may be made up next year by an abundant yield. If the supply 

 in the forest field is destroyed to-day, as we have stated, one hundred years must 

 elapse before a similar quantity can possibly take its place. 



It is owing to a realization of this fact perhaps more than to any other that 

 throughout the whole Dominion, the forestry question is now receiving such marked 

 attention. Pity that it has been so long delayed! 



While it is in the interest of the country as a whole that a constant supply of 

 timber for manufacturing should be maintained, it is essential to the continuation 

 of the business of the lumberman and any regulations that tend to harmonize or 

 bring into line the best interests of the public, who are the original owners of the 

 timber, with the users or manufacturers of the product of the forest should be 

 welcomed by all. 



If the latter, as is now generally the case, has only a limited period of time 

 given him to cut the timber from his holdings, with no certainty of a renewal of 

 his license, his interest does not lie in nurturing a future crop in which he has no 

 guaranteed interest, but rather in cutting and marketing everything that will give 

 him a profit, at least so far as the regulations permit. I am aware of the diameter 

 limit below which he is not supposed to cut, but remembering the condition in 

 which cut over limits are usually left and the almost inevitable fire that follows, 

 it is a question whether it would not in many cases be better that the whole of the 

 timber were allowed to be utilized rather than consumed by fire. 



It follows then that vested rights for a short period of time in timber property 

 are opposed to the best interest of the country as a whole. The most unwise regu- 

 lation that could possibly be conceived of, is that compelling the holder of timber 

 licenses to cut timber within a stated period, regardless entirely of whether there is 

 a market for it or not. The result of such a regulation must inevitably be that the 

 lumberman will cut only the choicest of the timber and leave the limit in such a 

 condition as to be almost sure to be swept over by fire which will destroy not only 

 the second class fully grown, timber of less value than that which he has cut, but 

 also the young growth as well. Apart from this, such a stimulus to over-produc- 

 tion will result in a demoralization of the market in the meantime with a consequent 

 scarcity which must follow. Such a regulation is sure to be prejudicial to the 

 interests of the lumberman and also to the consumer of lumber in the future. 



A view of the conditions on this continent and in Europe will convince anyone 

 that nothing less than a timber famine awaits us in the future. Authorities of 

 the highest standing in Europe are unanimous on this point and quite recently Mr. 

 Gifford Pinchot, who has charge of the forests of the federal Government at Wash- 

 ington, has made the prediction that in twenty-five years, with the present rate of 

 consumption, the merchantable timber of the United States will be exhausted. 

 Statistics both in Europe and America show that notwithstanding the increased 

 use of brick, stone, iron and cement in structural works, the consumption of wood 

 goes on increasing year by year. Not only is the aggregate consumption in all 

 civilized countries greater to-day than it ever was before, but the per capita consump- 

 tion is also greatly increasing; that is that the average use of timber by every indi- 

 vidual is -greater now than it ever was before. Such being the case, the demand 

 enormously increasing, and the supply constantly diminishing, only one result can 

 follow; and the country that to-day possesses valuable forests will profit by them 



