The Application of Scientific and Practical 

 Arboriculture to Canada, 



» ■ 



Paper by Prof. Brown of the Ontario Agricultural College. 



Is there any country whatever that has made 

 an eminent agricultural history and does not 

 MOW complain of want of trees ? 



Advanced nations are not discussing the 

 worth or worthlessness of trees in their rural 

 economy ; they are considering how bf?st to 

 •ecure the fullness of the value thereof in all 

 their bearings. In doing this much serious 

 consideration is necessary. It would be very 

 unwise for any country to i u.sh into extensive 

 tree planting without a clear idea as to how the 

 work should be begun, carried out and main- 

 tained. It is my purpose briefly in this paper 

 to show what Canada can do in the scientific 

 and practical application of arboriculture, and 

 before handling the subject as a forester, allow 

 me to submit some general views. 



Canadian forestry will have no place in all its 

 Bcientific and practical value vuitil one of two 

 things be accomplished : One is the conviction 

 on the part of her farmers of the necessity of 

 conserving and replanting, therefore, their 

 education up to these; and the other is the 

 power by Government to resume parts of the 

 country for conserving and replanting. Both 

 will be difficult. The former would be the slower 

 but eventually the most thorough because of 

 Belf-interest ; the latter would be more imme- 

 diate and possibly less efficient, practically, 

 though scientifically better applied. No large 

 number •£ vwrious interest* could be so well 



arranged as by a company, and therefore Gov 

 ernment, as a company, will have to become 

 foresters in all the many details of the 

 profession. 



Much of our indifference in this subject 

 arises from the common idea thr t the planter 

 cannot himself personally hojK) to receive all 

 the benefits from the conservation of the present 

 trees, and particularly from replanting. Amer- 

 ican returns, to the American, must be smart, 

 strong, and undoubted ; the i«Jeaof fjermanency 

 in the long after years does not concern us r,3 

 much as now. In Europe it takes a shape that 

 may never be realized here, because of one 

 thing— that one thing is large propriet;)ry, the 

 possessing within one man's power all the area 

 and class of soil suitable to profitable produc- 

 tion on a large scale, so that even that one 

 man can employ officers and men in such num- 

 ber as make profits certain. Cultivated Canada 

 meantime is so sub-divided as to preclude all 

 idea of sufficient massing of woods to receive 

 equal results with Europe,— but the day may 

 come, and meantime progress; must l)e made 

 otherwise. 



I belie>e it it the experience of the world, 

 that more difficulty, in various forms, is found 

 in reclothing with trees where trees grew before, 

 than it is to plant, not replant, a country for 

 the first time. There is not only the practical 

 f»ct of Bucwseion of cropping in its scientific 



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