14 THE CANADIAN FORESTER'S 



CHAPTER III 



THE DUTIES OF LIMlT-OWNERS, LUMBER-MERCftANTS, AND OTHERS, 

 AS REGARDS. THE PRESERVATION OF THE FORESTS. 



The government, in passing such a law as I have 

 sketched in the preceding chapter, would impose no 

 obligations on limit-owners except those which it 

 would be their duty to assume, even if they had not the 

 force of law. 



To state more clearly what I mean by these obligations, 

 I will quote the example of a firm which has been 

 engaged in the lumber-trade for thirty years, and which 

 turns its limits to profit in a very intelligent manner, as 

 the following account will show. When the firm began 

 business, it determined never to fell any tree below a 

 certain girth. Another principle was, not to cut over the 

 same place several years in succession, but to allow ten 

 years, at least, to elapse between the falls. Its servants, 

 too, acted as a sort of police, and watched the hunters, &c., 

 as closely as possible. The result is, that, to-day, these 

 limits are almost as valuable as on the day the firm began 

 operations. Instead of having to buy new limits, as the 

 short-sighted are often obliged to do, the mills have 

 abundant provision of wood from the property of the 

 firm. In fact, the firm is free and independent in its 

 own possessions, employing to great profit their territory, 

 which, treated in this way, has become an almost inex- 

 haustible source of revenue. 



"Well, what this firm has done, let all do. What is 

 possible to one is possible to all. Let all lumbermen 

 unite in the determination never to fell any tree of a less 

 diameter than a foot, let them alloAV time for the trees 

 to grow on their limits, let them assist the forest- 



