CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 113 



sportsmen at the Sportsmen's Show, held in New York. All were unanimous in 

 condemning the wasteful methods of the lumbermen, and the weakness of the Gov- 

 ernment in permitting them until too late. Let the Canadian people take this 

 lesson to heart in time this lesson that the American people are finding so bitter 

 to learn, and difficult to turn to account. To-day the American lumbermen and 

 pulp mill owners look to Canada, as the dying Moslem looks to Mecca, for salvation. 

 The tourist and the sportsman, not only of the United States, but of Europe, look 

 upon Canada as their Mecca. Let us see to it that they do not look in vain, always 

 remembering that many of these both care and know what the axe and the cross- 

 cut saw can do, in the hands of the irresponsible lumberman. He can destroy in 

 five minutes what nature cannot perhaps replace in less than a century. Nature 

 is a good mother, but she sternly resists any interference with her prerogatives. 

 These prerogatives she insists shall be faithfully respected or punishment will follow. 

 The cutting down of a forest and failure to leave seed trees in abundance for re- 

 planting may mean the cutting off completely of fur, feathers and fin. Nature 

 can regain her balance in time from a very small margin, so long as that margin is 

 left, but often nothing has been left. There is not a single game bird or animal 

 in Canada that does not depend entirely, or at any rate largely, upon the tree for 

 its existence. The moose is a twig eater; the cariboo partly depends on the lichens 

 and mosses that grow on old forest trees, " the bearded hemlock in the forest prim- 

 eval." The deer eats various kinds of shrubs, including hemlock and cedar, to 

 keep it in health, for it has no gall. The beaver and porcupine are eminently tree- 

 eaters, and so on down to the wood'rabbit. The bear's living comes from the tree 

 in the shape of honey, ants, slugs, mice and various other edibles found in standing 

 or fallen timber. The carnivora, in turn, live upon the tree feeders. This is true of 

 the panther, the wolf, and the little white weasel only six inches long. The squirrels, 

 chipmunks, and other little rodents, down to the mouse, depend on the tree to 

 supply them with buds, leaves and various insects in summer, and nuts to store away 

 for winter use. All the game and insectivorous birds of Canada depend on the tree, 

 especially in winter, for their food, and all fur and feather must have the shelter of 

 the forests. You cannot destroy the forest without destroying the life it contains. 



But that is not- all; there is another and more serious aspect to this question. 

 I will put it in the words of an old Scot, who, when asked to give his opinion before 

 a board of Fish Commissioners as to why the salmon were no longer running up 

 a once famous river, answered with some surprise : "Ye canna hae feeshwhen ye 

 hae stoppit the water." This simple answer explained to the board all that was 

 necessary. They had stripped the mountains on each side of the river for miles 

 of its timber. The river, in consequence, was not pouring down its accustomed 

 volume of fresh water regularly; a radical change in water levels destroyed the 

 spawning grounds; the spring freshet became a thick muddy mixture. The fish 

 left for new waters; with the fish left the fishermen; and with the fishermen a large 

 revenue. You can't have fish without water; you can't have water, pure, sweet, 

 and in full and regular volume without its natural reservoir the forest. It has 

 been conclusively demonstrated that forest-clad slopes do more than most other 

 natural conditions, to attract the active, as well as the passive, moisture of the 

 atmosphere. 



The forest, full of trees of various kinds, is one of nature's finest gifts to man, 

 and no gift has been more abused. Germany is centuries ahead of us in her forest 

 treatment. Norway discovered before it was too late that she was about to lose 

 untold wealth in her game and fish, and promptly commenced reafforestation. 

 New Zealand at heavy expense for so small and young a colony, imported fish and 



