410 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 1003 



bring to the empire what she has a right to 

 expect. 



There is no one force which can do more 

 in this important undertaking than the 

 provincial university when properly artic- 

 ulated with the other educational units of 

 each province, if these resulting provincial 

 systems are properly coordinated and 

 organized into a workable national 

 mechanism. 



CONSERVATION OF NATIONAL RESOUBCES 



It is most important that we appreciate 

 our responsibilities for the heritage which 

 has been given us. "We must not be intoxi- 

 cated by the realization of nature's prodi- 

 gality. In the exuberance of our youth, we 

 must not sow national wild oats for our 

 children and children's children to reap. 



We must conserve our national resources 

 intelligently, which means that we must 

 use and not abuse nature's gifts to us. "We 

 can well take warning from the experiences 

 of the United States, where it is being 

 found necessary to hold annual conserva- 

 tion congresses, one of which is now in ses- 

 sion at "Washington, D. C. At this con- 

 gress, forest conservation will receive first 

 attention, the desire being to specialize on 

 some one phase of the conservation pro- 

 gram at each meeting, for the purpose of 

 achieving more lasting results. In the call 

 issued for this congress, the following 

 announcement is made: 



The fifth National Conservation Congress is to 

 be devoted largely to forest conservation, because 

 of the national importance of the subject in its 

 many phases. Public interest is involved, because 

 upon the proper solution of the various problems 

 depends the cost of the wood without which our 

 civilization would decline; the perpetuation of the 

 timber supply; the development of hydro-electric 

 power; the utilization of non-agricultural lands; 

 the availability of water for irrigation ; the preser- 

 vation of forest areas for health and recreation; 

 and many other developments essential alike to 



every citizen from the lumberman to the man who 

 owns neither a tree nor a foot of land. 



The congress will endeavor to diffuse 

 more information and develop better meth- 

 ods for the prevention of forest fires which 

 cause such tremendous loss of life and of 

 property valued at over fifty million dollars 

 annually, and which also damage the soil, 

 the water and the young timber growth. 

 The study of forest insects is important, 

 since they destroy enough timber every 

 year "to finance the construction program 

 of the navy." The relation of floods to 

 forest denudation, which is in part respon- 

 sible for the disasters of the current year, 

 will be studied. 



The need of knowing exact conditions so 

 as to avoid the use each year of three times 

 the annual timber growth is apparent, par- 

 ticularly when we realize that only forty 

 to seventy per cent, of each cut tree is 

 utilized, while fires are destroying annually 

 the equivalent of this growth. The use of 

 preservatives for the treatment of wood 

 with the view of prolonging its life when 

 used in constructive work is important be- 

 cause through it we have promise of reduc- 

 tion in forest consumption and the possi- 

 bility of increasing supply by utilizing 

 inferior species of woods at present not 

 available. Another object of the congress 

 is to meet the need on the part of the 

 public for a safe national forest policy 

 against which there seems to be strong 

 opposition. 



These details are cited, not because they 

 constitute Canada's most important na- 

 tional waste, but because it is the one which 

 at this moment is receiving recognition and 

 study by our neighbors. 



The conservation of the soil elements, the 

 utilization and preservation to the people 

 of water powers, mineral wealth and above 

 all, that chiefest national asset, the public 

 health and human vitality, surely consti- 

 tute a present-day responsibility, if the 



