Canadian Forestry Journal, December, ipi6 



877 



the hundred flourished and preached 

 the common sense claims of Agricul- 

 ture, not a single forestry expert put in 

 an appearance in Canada until a com- 

 paratively few years ago. Any public 

 representation of the quantity of our 

 remaining forests, the innocence of for- 

 est fires- and careless lumbering was 

 accepted at face value, for there was 

 none to argue against it. The Forest 

 has been our most shabbily-treated na- 

 tional resource. Demanding quite as 

 much scientific management as Hus- 

 bandry in order to produce highest 

 dividends it has been treated in the 

 past like a crop of front-lawn dande- 

 lions that deserve extermination. Had 

 the growing of forests been looked 

 upon as an ally of agriculture, which it 

 most truly is. we would have applied 

 our brains to it twenty years ago as to 

 crop rotation and pure bred stock. 



Putting All Lands to Work. 



Crops are crops, whether trees or 

 wheat. There may be a conflict of 

 opinion as to placing oats or wheat on 

 a certain acre in a certain latitude. But 

 there never can be much conflict about 

 the tree crop. It grows on all soils, 

 but is content to grow where cereals 

 would wither. The true conservator, 

 therefore, regards forest crops in this 

 manner: give to the farmer for field 

 crops every acre in the Dominion on 

 which such things will flourish- But 

 about fifty to sixty per cent, of the 

 whole area of Canada is not fit for field 

 crops and will not pay the plowman his 

 salt. Shall we leave that sixty per 

 cent, as desert or put it to work? By 

 all means put it to work — the only 

 work it will do — growing timber. 



A good illustration comes to hand 

 from New Brunswick. The Govern- 

 ment of that province is carrying out 

 what amounts to a double survey of 

 the whole provincial area now under 

 forest growth. Rather than locate 

 new settlers ignorantly, the authorities 

 will be able to put their hand on nearly 

 every square mile of agricultural soil 

 and know positively that it will bear 

 crops and is worth opening up. They 

 will also possess detailed information 

 as to every acre that will grow nothing 

 but timber and can intelligently mark 

 off such lands from anv chance of set- 



tlement. Thus, at a stroke, the future 

 agricultural development of New 

 Brunswick is given an important safe- 

 guard, the revenues from timber lands 

 are assured, and there need never be 

 enacted the tragedies of misplaced set- 

 tlement and abandoned farms. Every 

 province of Canada should have a care- 

 ful soil survey preceding settlement. 

 Until that is done and until entire com- 

 munities are transported from their 

 present hang-dog surroundings to 

 lands that will give them crops we can- 

 not expect to take medals as agricultu- 

 ral managers. 



Our Future Immigrants. 



We perceive in these stirrings of 

 Governments some recognition of the 

 Forest's claim for scientific study and 

 a clear-headed plan of business man- 

 agement and development. No farm- 

 er wants to think of a timber famine 

 and soaring lumber bills. Neither 

 does he invite the ruin of the great 

 wood-using industries for lack of sup- 

 plies. In both cases he will be a 

 grievous loser. Yet our total of ac- 

 cessible timber is not large. We have 

 only about one quarter what is pos- 

 sessed by the United States. We have 

 burned about five times as much as we 

 have cut. With a population of a few 

 millions we have allowed our once 

 splendid areas of white pine to be 

 scourged into a remnant of timber 

 berths. Yet, knowing these things, 

 we beckon to Europe for ten or twenty 

 millions of lumber-using immigrants. 

 How shall we supply them, if we are 

 heading for exhaustion on our present 

 basis of population? These are ques- 

 tions none of us can ignore. 



The farmers of North-western China 

 took no heed of conservation necessi- 

 ties and to-day one may see stretches 

 of hundreds of miles, denuded of for- 

 ests and stripped of farms. The farm- 

 ers of Palestine and Syria, Greece, Cen- 

 tral Spain and parts of Italy likewise 

 gave them no heed and were driven out 

 by flood and drought, wind storms, 

 plagues of insects and the scarcity of 

 fuel and the commonest wood supplies 

 for farm and home. In the Empire of 

 India, the mass of people are agricultu- 

 rists, but wood is so scarce that prices 

 run to $100 a thousand feet, and the 



