96 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



FORESTRY IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



F. C. WHITMAN, PRESIDENT LUMBERMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF WESTERN 



NOVA SCOTIA. 



Owing to the lavish display of indigenous trees in the Province oi 

 Nova Scotia and the very low values of wood, no thought was ever given 

 to the conservation of the forests during the early settlement of the coun- 

 try. But, settlers from England, Scotland, the New England States, and 

 other countries, who came to make homes in a wilderness, after erecting 

 residences and clearing away the dense growth of native trees, imported 

 and planted either seeds or trees of English oak, Scotch larch, or pine 

 American elms, and, in many instances, surrounded their plantations with 

 hedges. Not long ago I was surprised to find a large and beautiful English 

 walnut tree in bearing, growing on the banks of the Annapolis Basin. In 

 Annapolis Royal former residents have standing monuments of stately 

 elms, oaks and other trees, that make the present town beautiful, and it is 

 too often noted with regret that a change of ownership brings destruc- 

 tion to many a tree that has been a landmark for over a hundred years. 

 There are villages and towns in the Province whose claim to beauty is 

 owing to the trees so thoughtfully set out in earlier years. 



The forestry problem of to-day, however, seems to be commercial and 

 not aesthetic. We can hardly blame the lumbermen and hewers of wood 

 who in days gone by chopped a precarious living out of virgin forest 

 without a thought of conservation. Just think for a moment what it meant 

 with the limited appliances of fifty years ago to operate in the woods, and 

 get out pine lumber that sold for $9 or less per thousand feet, or spruce at 

 $6 per thousand feet. The pay was not all cash, a little money and the 

 rest molasses and flour (flour costing $12 per barrel). Between that time 

 and up to a few years ago, no matter how valuable in timber the forest 

 acreage might be, I believe no bank would advance money on the security 

 of such property. Consequently, operators had to furnish personal se- 

 curity for their advances, and endeavor to make the quickest possible turn- 

 over of the logs into money. It was a case of needs must when the devil 

 drives; and the fores.t suffered. The best was taken, the waste was enor- 

 mous, and forest fires made a clean sweep of anything that was left. 



There was a time in Nova Scotia when people were rather proud of 

 the pall of smoke. It indicated that lumbering had been active and fire and 

 smoke were taken to be only the natural results of the operation. Not- 

 withstanding what has just been said, 1 believe lumbermen, at least the 

 lumbermen of Nova Scotia, are the best people to carry out a policy of 

 conservation under proper Government regulations. When it comes (and 

 I believe it has come) to be a commercial proposition, the men who own 

 timber and manufacture lumber, and have a practical knowledge of the 

 varying conditions, will prove to be the best foresters. 



The Lumbermen's Association of Western Nova Scotia and the Gov- 



iment have been endeavoring to come together on a basis of mutual 



ing, to devise plans and adopt methods that will perpetuate 



