438 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, ipi6. 



Would Research Pay? 



'l\) make the same tests with 

 spruce will not be as quick nor as 

 easy as with poplar, for methods of 

 technique will have to be developed, 

 and the experiment itself will be 

 slower to come to completion. 

 Even if the cost and time were 

 double that given in the case of 

 poplar, it would stil be very worth 



while. A forest with pulp wood of 

 first quality, each tree of which in- 

 creases two inches in diameter each 

 year, is well worth working for. A 

 single automobile company in this 

 country expended last year $500,000 

 in research. Should a company 

 making pulp hesitate to invest $7,- 

 000 a year for a few years when 

 there is an even larger prize in sight? 



Cedars of Lebanon 



There are only about four hundred 

 of the Cedars of Lebanon left. High 

 up on the rocky slopes, Hadrian 

 sculptured his imperial anathema 

 against all who should cut these 

 sacred trees. The Maronite peas- 

 ants almost worship them and call 

 them the "Cedars of the Lord," and 

 a recent governor of the Lebanon 

 has surrounded them by a great 

 wall, so that the young shoots may 

 not be injured by roving animals. 

 Yet, century by century, their num- 

 ber grows less. 



But these few are of royal blood. 

 They are not the largest of trees, 

 though some of the trunks measure 

 over fortv feet around. Their beau- 

 ty lies in the wide-spreading limbs, 

 which often cover a circle two or 

 three hundred feet in circumference. 

 Some are tall and symmetrical, 

 with beautiful horizontal branches ; 

 others are gnarled and knotted, 

 with inviting seats in the great 

 forks, and charming beds on the 

 thick foliage of the swinging 

 boughs. The wood has a sweet 

 odor, is very hard, and seldom de- 

 cays. The vitality of the cedar is 

 remarkable. A dead tree is never 

 seen, except when lightning or the 

 axe has been at work. Often a great 

 bough of one tree has grown into a 

 neighbor, and the two are so bound 

 in together, that it is impossible to 

 say which is the parent trunk. Per- 

 haps the unusual strength and vi- 



tality of the cedars are due to their 

 slow growth. 



When a little sprout, hardly waist- 

 high, is said to be ten or fifteen or 

 twent}' years old, one cannot help 

 asking, "What must be the age of 

 the great patriarchs of the grove?" 

 It is hard to tell exactly. There 

 have been counted, with the aid of 

 a microscope, more than seven 

 hundred rings on a bough only 

 thirty inches in diameter. Those 

 who have studied the matter deeply 

 think that some of these trees must 

 be more than a thousand years old. 

 Indeed, there is nothing wildly im- 

 probable in the thought that per- 

 haps the Guardian, for instance, may 

 have been a young tree when Hiram 

 began cutting for the temple at 

 Jerusalem. 



Annual Fees Now Payable 



Members of the Canadian Fores- 

 try Association are respectfully re- 

 quested to remit the annual fees as 

 early as possible. A memorandum 

 was sent to every member during 

 the past month and it is desired that 

 as far as possible the returns shall 

 reach the Treasurer before the mid- 

 dle of April. 



The attention of members is also 

 directed to the new "Contributing 

 Membership," by which those wish- 

 ing to aid the 1916 programme of 

 forest protection campaigning in a 

 special way are enabled to do so. 



