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The National Geographic Magazine 



been made in this direction. I know that 

 the lumbermen keep a patrol of the 

 woods of the Ottawa Valley, and that is 

 a great improvement; but I submit that 

 this is not enough. I submit that some- 

 thing more ought to be done, if it be only 

 to have more patrolmen. I believe that 

 we should have the woods patrolled as 

 they are in Germany and France ; so that, 

 as far as possible, every incipient fire 

 should be prevented from spreading. 

 Moreover, we should impress every man 

 in Canada — the lumbermen, the sports- 

 men, the man out of any class — with the 

 belief that it is a crime, an absolute crime, 

 to throw a lighted match upon the ground 

 (applause), to scatter the ashes of a fire, 

 or to leave a camp fire before it is abso- 

 lutely extinguished. (Loud applause.) 

 All these things are crimes, and I would 

 go so far as to say that they should be 

 made crimes under the law. 



DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY THE RAILWAY 

 LOCOMOTIVE 



There is another mode of destruction 

 to which I want to call the attention of 

 the convention, and it is the destruction 

 of the railway locomotive. The railway 

 locomotive is a great blessing un- 

 doubtedly, and I am not here to say any- 

 thing harsh of it ; but if you take the 

 train at Halifax to go to Vancouver, in 

 every province of the Dominion where 

 there is timber — in Nova Scotia, in New 

 Brunswick, in Quebec, in Ontario, in 

 British Columbia — you will see miles and 

 miles and miles of what was once beauti- 

 ful forest and which is now nothing but 

 parched and blackened timber, a monu- 

 ment to the destructive power of the rail- 

 way locomotive. I know that the railway 

 men have done a great deal to obviate 

 this evil. They have used all possible 

 ways of overcoming the difficulty inher- 

 ent to the operation of the railway loco- 

 motive. They have put screens upon 

 their stacks, they have devised different 

 methods, but all these methods have been 

 inadequate and I do not know that in that 

 direction they can do more than they have 

 done; but perhaps the railways ought to 



be compelled in the summer season, at all 

 events, to have extra patrolmen on their 

 tracks so as to prevent incipient fires, to 

 follow sparks in their progress, and to 

 extinguish them before they have caused 

 any damage. I think that is one ques- 

 tion that ought to be carefully considered 

 by this convention, and I believe that if it 

 were to do nothing more than to prevent 

 fires by railway locomotives, this conven- 

 tion would have done a great deal ; but I 

 think it will do more than that. 



GOOD EXAMPLE OE MANITOBA AND SAS- 

 KATCHEWAN 



There is another subject to which I 

 would also invite the attention of the con- 

 vention. That is tree planting. It is not 

 sufficient that we should preserve our 

 forests where we have forests. It is not 

 sufficient that we should plant forests also 

 to a great extent, but we should invite 

 people generally to give more attention to 

 tree planting at their homes and es- 

 pecially upon their farms. 



The Canadian government some eight 

 years ago introduced into one of its de- 

 partments a forestry branch. It has done 

 a great deal of good in that respect, and 

 I hope that Mr Stewart, who is the ad- 

 ministrator of this branch, will give us 

 some information as to the work which 

 he has done. It has done a great deal 

 already, to my certain knowledge and to 

 the knowledge of every one who has been 

 in the Northwest. 



It was my privilege last September to 

 visit the Province of Manitoba and the 

 new provinces of Saskatchewan and Al- 

 berta. Fourteen years had elapsed since 

 I had seen them before, and of all things 

 which struck me in this wonderful coun- 

 try the thing which perhaps gladdened 

 my heart more than anything else is the 

 attention which is given to forestry. 

 Fourteen years ago, when I first visited 

 the Province of Manitoba and the terri- 

 tories of Alberta and Saskatchewan, the 

 farms were absolutely barren of trees; 

 you could not see a tree around them. 

 Now I am glad to say that around most 

 of the farms of Manitoba and many in 



