82 



Canadian Forestry Journal, August-September, 1914. 



The Canadian Forestry Association 

 could not hold its intended Conven- 

 tion, and some other lines of work 

 will be shut off, but the remaining 

 lines that are not shut off must be 

 worked, so that a year hence, fifty 

 years hence, the cause will be further 

 ahead than it is today. Keeping up 

 the regular institutions of the coun- 

 try is not such spectacular work as 

 some other kinds, but it is just as 

 necessary to the well-being of the 

 state. 



DR. WILLIAM SAUNDEES. 



Dr. William Saunders, C.M.G., 

 LL.D., F.R.S.C, for twenty-five years 

 Director of Dominion Experimental 

 Farms, died at his residence in Lon- 

 don, Ont., on September 13, in his 

 seventy-ninth year. He had been ill 

 for about two years. Dr. Saunders' 

 work for agriculture in Canada is so 

 well known that it is necessary only 

 to refer to it briefly. Born in Devon- 

 shire, England, he came to Canada 

 when he was twelve years old. He was 

 in early life a wholesale and manu- 

 facturing chemist, and was one of the 

 founders of the Ontario College of 

 Pharmacy, of which he was president 

 for two years. He was founder and 

 president for several years of the 

 Ontario Entomological Society, and 

 for tliirteen years edited the Cana- 

 dian Entomologist, He was president 

 of the Ontario Fruit Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, of the Association for the Pro- 

 motion of Agricultural Science, and 

 of the Biological Section of the Royal 

 Society of Canada, and was made an 

 honorary member of many important 

 societies. 



In 1885 he was selected by the Do- 

 minion Government to inspect experi- 

 mental farms in different countries, 

 and in the three years following the 

 Government established the five orig- 

 inal experimental farms and appoint- 

 ed him Director, which post he held 

 till about two years ago, when failing 



health compelled his retirement. In 

 that period Dr. Saunders built up an 

 international reputation, especially 

 in the field of cereal development. He 

 also did much to develop the plums 

 and other native fruits of western 

 Canada. At the time of the estab- 

 lishment of the experimental farms 

 agriculture in the Canadian West 

 was still in the doubtful stage, and the 

 success of wheat growing in the west 

 has been, in a large measure, due to 

 the work of these farms. 



S.-m;4^V5:^ v. V 0.S-- 



The Late Dr. Saunders. 



It will be seen from the above that 

 Dr. Saunders was a man of wide 

 sympathies, one who looked upon 

 farming as part of the national life. 

 In this outlook he included forestry, 

 and he was one of the earliest mem- 

 bers of the Canadian Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, and one of its first Directors. 

 In those days, before conservation 

 was popular,^ or even tolerated, it had 

 a vigorous champion in Dr. Saunders. 



Not only did he believe in forestry 

 in the forests, but he believed in farm 

 forestry. The arboretum and forest 

 belts at the Central Experimental 

 Farm, Ottawa, the plantations at 



