CHAIRMAN'S ADDRESS 7 



efforts could be made along the line of increasing our game preserves 

 and administering the preserves properly. 



Treaty re Another matter which is coming before the attention 



Bir^s of the Committee is the proposed Treaty concerning 



migratory birds, the International Treaty which is 

 proposed to be put into effect by joint action of the United States and 

 Canada in order to restrict the slaughter of the migratory birds, 

 especially in their northern haunts during the summer season. If this 

 Committee can further the ends of that proposed Treaty we should, 

 without any question, do it. It seems to me a most important matter. 

 In connection with the work of preserving our game in Canada, a 

 great many organizations have been formed in the past year or two 

 and it might be possible for the Commission of Conservation to be to 

 some extent a clearing house for the activities of these different 

 organizations, that we might sum up the work that is being done, 

 present it in a tangible form to the proper authorities, and also 

 investigate what is being done in the various provinces. 



The third subject, with which this Committee deals, is 

 Farming that of fur-bearing animals. This work is important, 



and we have done something along that line. At the 

 Meeting of the Committee in 1912, a Resolution was passed appointing 

 Mr. J. Walter Jones to acquire information regarding the possibilities 

 of fur farming in Canada. His results were published in a report 

 which met with very great demand and which ran into a second edition. 

 The matter principally dealt with was, of course, fox farming, with 

 Prince Edward Island and the Maritime provinces generally, as the 

 centre of the industry. The results of the work have been spoiled, to 

 a certain extent, by the wild speculation that took place a few years 

 ago in connection with the numerous joint stock companies, but it is 

 rather fortunate that that speculation has been stopped as quickly as 

 it has and there is little doubt that eventually there will be an important 

 industry on a definite business basis in connection with fur farming 

 in Canada. 



I thought it best to review the work of the Committee of 1912 

 and to gather up the ends of the work covered by that meeting as a 

 preliminary for the work of this meeting. 



