138 THE CANADIAN FORESTE.n'S' 



there is no remedy. To which I reply, that this is a mis- 

 taken idea, for there is one, but one so radical, so energetic, 

 and so burdensome, that some will cry out loudly against 

 its practicability. The remedy is this: the lumbermen 

 should be obliged to clear away from the forest all the 

 rubbish caused by the operation. In order to insure the 

 acceptance and the execution of this means of preven- 

 tion, we must set aside the pecuniary considt^rations of 

 a few hundreds of people who are interested in the 

 exploitation of the woodlands, and we must consider the 

 question as one of general importance from a national 

 point of view. 



Lumber merchants, to-day, sell their wood at a uniform 

 price. If every one was obliged to increase the cost of 

 exploitation, by clearing off the remains left by the 

 axemen, what woTild happen ? Only that they would be 

 obliged to sell their wood dearer. It is all very well 

 to say, " if we ask too high prices, we shall not be able 

 to sell ; and we shall ruin this branch, of industry ! " 

 The reply is simple and irrefutable. "We have now, 

 thank Grod, the richest forests in the world. People 

 must have our wood. This is so true, that our neighbours 

 allow it to enter duty free into their ports, to induce us to 

 send it to them, and thus, they themselves are able, in a 

 measure, to economise the resources of their own forests. 

 There is no indisposition among them to buy lumber 

 from us. Even if the high prices caused by the means 

 indicated did drive strangers from our market for a year 

 or two, that would not last long ; they would soon 

 return. "We should only risk the loss of our sales of 

 lumber for a couple of years, a loss which, very likely, 

 might not happen after all. On the other hand, our 

 proposed system once established, we should have our 

 forests perfectly free from rubbish and from brushwood, 



