812 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Novevther, igi6 



The Relation of Forests to Our 



Civilization 



A Survey of Past and Present with a Prophecy for the 



Ethical Value of Forests 



By Dr. Bernard E. Fernozv, 

 Dean of Forest School, University of Toronto. 



(Article reproduced from University of California Journal of Agriculture.) 



In a volume entitled "Inquirendo Is- 

 land," the author describes a commun- 

 ity, descendants of a ship-wrecked 

 crew, on a woodless island, iron being- 

 the only structural material and coal 

 the fuel. While such an existence is 

 thinkable, everybody who looks about 

 him and realizes to what extent wood 

 enters into our civilization will admit 

 that such existence would be full of in- 

 conveniences. Indeed, our civilization 

 is built on wood. From the cradle to 

 the coffin we are surrounded by wood 

 Next to food, wood is still the most 

 needful material, although in many di- 

 rections it has been supplanted by 

 metal, stone, cement, etc. Yet even 

 with all these substitutes, we are still 

 pretty nearly .correct in asserting that 

 no article of civilized life, whether of 

 food, shelter, clothing, of necessity, 

 convenience or decoration, is produced 

 or brought to the user without some- 

 where in the process relying on wood, 

 be it only to furnish the mold or pat- 

 tern or the handle of the tool with 

 which it is shaped, or the package in 

 which it is marketed. 



It may be reasonably asserted that 

 especially'the beginnings of civilization 

 would have been greatly hampered by 

 the lack of wood ; they are made most 

 readily with wood- There are several 

 intrinsic reasons for this: wood is the 

 easiest material to shape, the simplest 

 tools suffice to give it form. It is 

 light, hence easy to transport, and, rela- 

 tively to its weight, strong. It is most 



easily obtained and found, a natural 

 product over a large part of the globe. 



The phenomenally rapid development 

 of our own country could hardly have 

 been attained but for the vast forest re- 

 sources which made it easy for the set- 

 tler to build his houses and barns and 

 to provide him with fuel. Even the 

 rapid development of the forestless 

 prairie became possible only 4:hrough 

 the ease with which wood materials 

 could be transported in wooden cars 

 over the wooden railway ties. The 

 splendid wood supply of our country 

 has also been largely responsible for 

 the rapid industrial development dur- 

 ing the first hundred years during 

 which wood was one of the cheapest 

 commodities. 



Pulp and Printer's Ink. 



Out of the many wood-using indus- 

 tries we might single out one which 

 most strikingly exhibits the increased 

 reliance on wood supplies. While in 

 1880 the consumption of pulpwood was 

 almost nominal, less than three hun- 

 dred thousan'd cords, twenty years later 

 the consumption had grown to two 

 million cords, and in ten years more 

 this had more than doubled, and at 

 present it has grown to around six 

 million cords, attesting to a most re- 

 markable growth in the consumption 

 of paper in a particular direction, with 

 the accompanying spread, let us 

 hope, of intelligence due to the printed 

 matter it has conveyed to the people. 



