110 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



cannot live unless what we advocate succeeds, because with the disappearance of 

 the forest, the water, the fish and the game also disappear, so that in our forestry 

 work we are materially assisting the Fish and Game Societies of the country. 



I will now call upon Mr. L. O. Armstrong, Colonization Agent of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway, to give his address. 



Mr. L. O. ARMSTRONG. Ladies and Gentlemen, Before beginning my paper, 

 I will try to elucidate an idea given to me by the Quebec Fish and Game Ranger, 

 which is, that a sort of Board of Control should be formed and that our Province 

 should have representatives to care for the forest interests and meet together to 

 act as a whole. I merely suggest this to you, but I feel sure that the idea will be 

 a good one, and I mention it that you may think of it and bring it up later. At 

 present I represent the Fish and Game Association, and I hope at the same time 

 I represent all lovers of out-door life, especially in their love of the beauties of the 

 virgin forests. 



I was asked some time ago to give an address at a meeting where President 

 Roosevelt was present, and I talked with that gentleman for half an hour on 

 this very subject, particularly with regard to our northern forests. Since then 

 I have been very much amused to see the attempts made in some quarters to 

 insinuate that Mr. Roosevelt's sanity is not perfect. With those who make such 

 insinuations, the wish must be father to the thought. If they had heard him 

 as I have done, there would be no further attempt along that line. 



THE LOVERS OF OUT-OF-DOOR LIFE AND THE FOREST. 

 L. O. ARMSTRONG, COLONIZATION AGENT OF THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 



In the programme, my paper has received a slight misnomer. I hold no 

 brief from the Game Associations. I speak from the point of view of the tourist 

 and sportsman, on behalf of all men and women who love out-of-door life, and espec- 

 ially of all those who appreciate the beauty of virgin forest. The tourist and 

 sportsman of Canada whether a member of an Association or not feels that if the 

 present system is allowed to continue, vast sections of this fair Canada will be- 

 come deserts. Because, where is now a great African desert, Pliny tells us that 

 he once drove drove for hundreds of miles in the deep shades of great trees. China 

 has thousands of her population washed away by freshets, and starved for want 

 of crop, because of the cutting of her forests and the denudation of her hills. 

 The whilom, lovely, wooded hills of Andalusia are now but gravelly mounds that 

 assure an annual crop of famine, freshet and discontent. This is true too of 

 Italy and India, two of the most beautiful countries in the world. 



Is this to be the fate of Canada? The sportsman thinks it will unless a radical 

 change is introduced in forest management, and the prelude to that is a change of 

 sentiment. When we propose this change to the so-called practical politician, 

 we are met sometimes with such mercenary and unpatriotic utterances as : " What 

 have our descendants done for us? We shall be dead then, what do we care?" 



