394 



Caiuuliaii Forestry Jourita!. lu'bruarw 1916. 



provoked uncommon interest, and 

 no less with the kimbermen who 

 held their annual meeting in the 

 same room on the previous day. 



All the provinces were well repre- 

 sented in the attendance when the 

 President, Mr. F. C. Whitman, call- 

 ed the meeting to order at 10.30 

 o'clock. 



The President's Address. 



The President's address referred 

 to the series of disturbing influences 

 upon the Canadian lumbering and al- 

 lied wood-using industries during 

 1915. They had felt keenly the gen- 

 eral business sentiment of extreme 

 caution, and on the other hand were 

 not singled out, as with some other 

 industries, for a temporary boom on 

 war orders. The state of the market 

 for our wood-using industries was 

 of the utmost concern to the cause 

 of forest conservation. Radical re- 

 forms in lumbering customs would 

 be deemed impracticable until 

 stumpage values were increased, and 

 that could come only through higher 

 prices for the finished product or de- 

 creased costs in logging. 



Mr. Whitman spoke of the proba- 

 ble effects of the war on the demand 

 for Canadian forest products. Des- 

 truction was proceeding in the belli- 

 gerent countries at a pace quite re- 

 gardless of future needs. Military 

 necessities had superseded every 

 other consideration. AVithout doubt, 

 the close of the war would force 

 European countries to look to North 

 America for a great part of their 

 wood supplies. The war and its 

 visible effects, therefore, constituted 

 an irresistible argument in favor of 

 forest conservation in this country. 

 If we are to take full advantage of 

 the national opportunity and respon- 

 sibility coming after the war, it 

 could not be done by the present 

 policy of throwing into the bon-fire 

 several times the amount of timber 

 we cut annually for our use. 



The President referred briefly to 

 the lightness of the fire risk in 1915 

 in Eastern Canada and on most of 



the Pacific Coast, and spoke of the 

 losses caused in Manitoba by care- 

 lessness on the part of the builders 

 of the Hudson Bay Railway. Of 

 the work of the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch, he observed : 



Exploration Works. 



"The Dominion Forestry Branch 

 has continued its exploration of the 

 timbered areas of the western pro- 

 vinces under its jurisdiction in order 

 to ascertain the location of the 

 bodies of timber and the lands which 

 should be permanently kept in for- 

 est. I understand that this work 

 has progressed so far that within an- 

 other year or two the whole of the 

 forested districts will be covered and 

 that it will be possible to make a 

 general survey of the timber resour- 

 ces and make final plans for protec- 

 tion. The information obtained so 

 far adds to the evidence that the 

 mature timber in our northern for- 

 ests is not by any means continuous 

 in stand, and in fact forms only a 

 small proportion of the stand, and 

 that the protection of the young 

 growth is of the greatest importance 

 if our timber supply is to be kept up. 

 The past season varied very much 

 in different parts of the west. In 

 the southern agricultural districts of 

 the prairie the rainfall was regular 

 but in the northern range of the for- 

 est the season was particularly dry, 

 resulting in very many fires and 

 some loss of timber. 



"The organization of the Domin- 

 ion forest reserves is being improved 

 steadily and the efforts of the staff 

 at protection are very much assisted 

 by . the scheme of improvements 

 which has been laid out and is be- 

 ing constructed on the reserves. A 

 few more years will have completed 

 the work sufficiently to give almost 

 a complete control of the fire situa- 

 tion. 



Tree Planting on Prairies. 



The farmers in the prairies in the 

 A\ est are showing their appreciation 

 of the value of the planting of trees 

 on farms by making application in 



