The Forests of Canada 



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forests which at one time were its pride. 

 We can- calculate the number of years, 

 and the number is not very great, when 

 there will not be another tree of the 

 original forest to be cut upon the limits 

 of the Canadian lumbermen. But trees 

 have grown and trees ought to grow 

 again. There is an impression, which I 

 have heard expressed on more than one 

 occasion, that it is useless to look for 

 another crop of pine trees ; that when you 

 have removed the crop we found here, 

 the growth of many years, the new crop 

 of trees will be spreading and of no mer- 

 chantable value. But I am told that there 

 is a way whereby a new crop of trees can 

 be grown. The growth should be started 

 as soon as the original trees have been re- 

 moved from the soil. 



A few years ago I was discussing this 

 subject with a lumberman of great au- 

 thority, a man known to some of you, the 

 late John Bertram, a man most eminent 

 in his profession and of the highest capa- 

 bilities in many directions. He told me 

 that on his limits on Georgian Bay he had 

 a young crop of pine which he had 

 started a few years before. The explana- 

 tion he gave me was this — and I am glad 

 to give here the information he imparted 

 to me, so as to gain the opinions of those 

 who have experience in these matters — 

 he told me that when the crop of pine was 

 cut off, the new crop to spring up would 

 consist largely of poplar, and the poplars 

 grew faster than the pine or hardwood 

 trees. And he said : If you take care to 

 plant pine seeds underneath these poplars, 

 the young pines will grow up, shaded by 

 the faster-growing trees. The pines, in 

 their efforts to reach the sunlight, will 

 grow tall and without limbs. After a 

 time, when they overtop the poplars, their 

 life is assured. If this be the case, it 

 seems to me we have here a method of 

 reproducing our trees and of having for 

 all time a constant supply. (Applause.) 

 It is a natural thought that we shall not 

 live to see this young generation of trees 

 at their full growth ; but we must not 

 think alone for ourselves, we must think 

 of the prosperity of Canada in the days 



when all of us shall be sleeping in our 

 graves. This is the sentiment, I am sure, 

 that actuates this entire assembly. (Loud 

 applause.) 



THE ENEMIES OE THE FOREST 



The next thing I would like the con- 

 vention to consider is the protection of 

 the forest against its many enemies ; for 

 the forest, unfortunately, has many 

 enemies. Man is bad enough, we all 

 agree ; but man is not so bad as the in- 

 sects, and the insects are not so bad as 

 fire. The fire is the great enemy of the 

 forest. Nothing can be sadder for us to 

 consider than that during the summer 

 months there are miles and miles of 

 forest destroyed by fire. This goes on 

 every year. Speaking of my own ex- 

 perience, it has been going on ever since 

 I can remember. It goes on, perhaps, 

 not to so great an extent as in former 

 years, but there is far too much of it yet. 



I was talking a few years ago with one 

 of the lumbermen of the city of Ottawa, 

 and he made the statement to me that the 

 enormous quantity of lumber taken to 

 market out of the Ottawa Valley does not 

 represent more than 10 per cent of the 

 timber that has been destroyed by fire. If 

 this is a true statement, the fact is simply 

 appalling. Last week I met one of the 

 lumber kings of the Ottawa Valley, who 

 asked me, "What are you going to do at 

 this Forestry Convention?" I said, "We 

 are going to compel the lumbermen to 

 protect the forest against fire." He re- 

 plied, "Why, the lumbermen are doing 

 more in that direction now than all the 

 rest of the community put together." I 

 said, "I quite believe it. But that is not 

 saying very much for the lumbermen 

 (applause and laughter), because the 

 rest of the community does absolutely 

 nothing to protect the forest, and the 

 lumbermen may well be doing more with- 

 out doing enough." (Applause.) 



What measures ought to be taken to 

 protect the forests against the raging 

 fires that every year consume such an ap- 

 palling quantity of the best timber of the 

 country? I know that some effort has 



