428 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, ipi6. 



as has been hitherto attempted tech- 

 nical men and technical knowledge 

 are hardly required. The fact that 

 most reserves are under the manage- 

 ment of non-technical men bears out 

 this contention : Forestry practice is 

 still absent. 



The application of forestry means 

 efforts to reproduce the harvested 

 crop, efforts to make the reserves 

 continuous producers, to manage 

 them with a view to sustained yield, 

 as it is technically called, which can 

 be done only by application of silvi- 

 culture, the art of forest crop pro- 

 duction. 



The principal reason for the ab- 

 sence of such forestry practice is 

 probably an economic one. Most of 

 the reserves are located where, as 

 yet, no market or only a limited 

 market exists, and, moreover, the 

 best timber, the marketable portion 

 on most of the reserves, had been 

 placed in timber limits, which were 

 haggled away before the reserves 

 were created, hence the administra- 

 tion was financially handicapped at 

 the start. 



In addition, the administrator of 

 the reserve, if he consulted the tech- 

 nical man, would have found out 

 that to reproduce the forest crop 

 costs money just the same as repro- 

 ducing the farm crop, and as he is 

 accustomed to deal at any rate only 

 with present-day affairs, he is apt to 

 let the future take care of itself and 

 to confine himself to present-day 

 timber sales of whatever available 

 supplies are at hand. He thinks that 

 if he has made provision against fire 

 danger and for reduction of w^aste 

 generally, perhaps restricting the 

 cut to a diameter limit, he has done 

 ^11 that can be expected. Surely, 

 these administrative measures are 

 of primary importance and need 

 first consideration, but if this were 

 to remain the proper attitude, the 

 reserves would fail of their object 

 and altogether the prosperity of the 

 country would suffer in the future. 



Long-range Calculation. 

 The forester also takes into con- 

 sideration the economic conditions 

 under which he is to practice his 

 technical art ; he also is shy at avoid- 

 able expenditures, but he makes a 

 long-range calculation. His business 

 is to provide for the future and 

 hence he looks into and calculates 

 with the future, and he knows from 

 the experience of other nations that 

 it requires expenditure and appar- 

 ently dead work in the present to 

 secure results for the future. 



His finance calculation is for the 

 long run ! 



We must not allow ourselves to 

 be deterred by the fact that the for- 

 est crop is slow in maturing, that it 

 takes many decades from the seed- 

 ling to the log tree and not less than 

 60 to 120 years for a profitable crop 

 to mature. 



On the contrary, this is the very 

 reason for a timely beginning to 

 start the crop. It is this time ele- 

 ment which makes the forestry busi- 

 ness unattractive to private enter- 

 prise and furnishes the argument 

 for government to engage in it, the 

 justification for setting aside forest 

 reserves and for handling them for 

 the sustained yield under systema- 

 tic forest management. Only a 

 government with the duty to con- 

 sider a long future, with providen- 

 tial functions, can afford to do this. 

 From the standpoint of the more 

 or less immediate need of inaugurat- 

 ing such systematic forest manage- 

 ment, we may classify the Reserves 

 into four or five classes. 



There are some reserves, located 

 near well populated districts, whose 

 supplies are already being heavily 

 drawn upon,' as e.g., the Cypress 

 Hills Reserves in Alberta and Sas- 

 katchewan, the Pines and Nisbet 

 Reserves in Saskatchewan, the 

 Turtle Mountain Reserve in Mani- 

 toba. Here, there should be imme- 

 diately inaugurated a well consider- 

 ed felling plan and a judicious re- 

 forestation programme. Under pre- 



