CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 27 



forest growth on both Crown lands and private holdings, and eventually 

 place staple values on every acre of soil that is conceded to be forest or 

 woodland. I want to emphasise this assertion, that large holders or com- 

 panies in endeavoring to protect their property or to increase the value of 

 the forest will, at the same time, increase the value of the small holdings of 

 timber lands, and materially add to the value of farms and estates where 

 wood lots are part of the property. It has been the policy of the Nova 

 Scotia manufacturers to buy standing timber or logs whenever offered, 

 and there is an assured market in the future that warrants anyone in mak- 

 ing a business of growing timber, or I had better put it, letting trees grow 

 until they are fit for market. I am of the opinion that the solution of the 

 question of how to perpetuate the forest can be brought about by fixing 

 values that canont be controverted. When this has been done, if only 

 partly, it will establish a credit that will not force a lumberman to sacrifice 

 timber. It so happens that to fix a value on 1,000 acres of spruce land, 

 will make that value applicable to any part of Nova Scotia. No values can 

 be fixed, however, if the title to the land or timber is uncertain, if there is 

 a fire menace, or a danger of destruction by flood; because ownership un- 

 der these conditions would be very insecure, and be sure to lead to destruc- 

 tive cutting of the timber. 



There is, I believe, a large amount of woodland for which present 

 owners have no further use, and so long as it remains in private hands it 

 will be nothing more than waste land. It would seem to me good policy on 

 the part of the State, and by the State I mean Provincial Governments; to 

 set a value on such land, so that it could be acquired by the State, and in 

 time it would become valuable timber land. 



In the matter of leaseholds, I submit what might appear to be a radical 

 proposition, and that is, when the State leases timber lands, whether for 

 a year or twenty years, the lease should carry with it an insurance against 

 fire. The basis of the proposition is, that in the first place it would mate- 

 rially enhance the value of the leasehold, both to the State and the lessee; 

 secondly, the property would be placed in better financial standing, and that 

 it would tend to conserve the cutting of timber; and, thirdly, with effective 

 fire laws and a proper fire ranging system, the State can well afford to 

 take the risk. I might add that many lessees under present conditions can- 

 not. 



We need in Nova Scotia an accurate survey of both Crown and private 

 lands, so that all the land that has been granted can be defined and prop- 

 erly segregated from the remaining Crown Lands. 



I would like to say a few words on what is being done in this Province 

 to preserve the forest. About six years ago, by the co-operation of the Gov- 

 ernment and the Lumbermen's Association of Western Nova Scotia, the 

 Act for the Protection of Woods Against Fires was put in force. The 

 system adopted has proved very beneficial and has the support of the 

 people. I was told by leading men of the Province that the proposition to 

 prevent forest fires or to fight them was chimerical, and that the destruc- 

 tion was inevitable. The matter is so well in hand to-day that buyers have 

 confidence in investing their money in forest land on which commercial tim- 



