528 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, ipi6. 



powers — have made it possible for 

 her to attract so large a population 

 from other countries, and with fu- 

 ture possibilities in this direction 

 which are as yet almost undreamed 

 of by the average citizen. 



These fundamental relationships 

 are as yet realized only in small part 

 by the great public-at-large, and that 

 is the real reason wdiy progress to- 

 ward better methods of utilization is 

 so slow. A vast amount of agitation 

 is almost always necessary, as a pre- 

 liminary to the adoption of reform 

 measures, and this is as true of the 

 conservation movement as of any 

 other. 



Contrary to the popular concept, 

 conservation does not mean the 

 present locking up of natural resour- 

 ces for the benefit of a distant fu- 

 ture. On the contrary, it simply 

 means the avoidance of all unneces- 

 sary waste ; in other words, it means 

 w^ise present use, with a view to 

 making non-reproducible supplies, 

 such as coal, iron, etc., last as long 

 as possible, and to so using the re- 

 productible resources, such as the 

 forests, as to make them self-perpe- 

 tuating, 



Would Pay War Charges. 



Everywhere, among the nations at 

 war, the avoidance of all forms of 

 waste is being strongly advocated as 

 a war measure. One aspect of this 

 broad movement, which is receiving 

 less attention than it deserves, is the 

 need for better conservation of our 

 forest resources. It is estimated that 

 the average annual loss by forest 

 fires in Canada is sufficient to pay 

 the interest upon the recent Domin- 

 ion loan of $100,000,000. 



The importance of the forest re- 

 source in the internal economy of 

 the country is shown by the fact 

 that the estimated total value of 

 forest products for Canada in 1912 

 was $182,300,000, or an annual 

 wealth production of $25.68 per head 

 of population. In 1913, nearly eight 

 million dollars was derived, by the 

 Dominion and provincial govern- 



ments, directly from the sale or lease 

 of cutting rights to publicly-owned 

 timber lands and from royalty and 

 stumpage payments made upon tim- 

 ber so cut. 



There are in Canada some 5,000 

 wood-using industries. The per- 

 manence of these industries depends 

 directly upon the perpetuation of the 

 forest resources of the country. It 

 is perfectly obvious, for instance, 

 that, no matter how large its timber 

 limits may be, any large pulp mill 

 must ultimately exhaust its resour- 

 ces of wood if the virgin forest be 

 continuously drawn upon without 

 adequate provision for its replace- 

 ment on cut-over lands. Yet this is 

 exactly the direction in which many 

 concerns are heading. Pulp and 

 paper mills represent very large in- 

 vestments of capital, and dividends 

 are bound to fail in the course of 

 time unless necessary provision is 

 made for the perpetuation of the 

 wood supply. 



Better methods of protection from 

 fire is the crying need of to-day, so 

 far as the forestry situation is con- 

 cerned. Great improvements have 

 been made within the last few years, 

 but the situation as a whole is still 

 far from satisfactory. 



"Mining" the Forests. 



In actual practice, the forest has 

 only too generally been treated like 

 a mine, and gutted, with no thought 

 of the future, rather than like a crop, 

 whitch it really is. The ordinary 

 method of unregulated lumbering 

 followed by fire, as has only too 

 generally been the practice in the 

 past, is gradually but surety turning 

 vast areas of non-agricultural land 

 into a desert and non-productive 

 condition. Timber is the only crop, 

 aside from game and fur-bearing ani- 

 mals, which these lands are capable 

 of producing. They are, however, 

 capable of continuously adding very 

 great wealth to the country, provid- 

 ed fire is kept out and other neces- 

 sary measures adopted for the per- 

 petuation of the forest as a forest. 



