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Words of Welcome addressed by the Chairman of 

 the Citizens' Eeception Committee. 



J. M. LeMoine. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 



To day ought to stand as a red-letter day in our 

 annals. 



Quebec welcomes here, in conclave, one may safely 

 assert, the most noted scientists in Sylviculture, of the 

 whole continent, the accredited representatives of the 

 American Forestry Association and delegates from the 

 leading States of the neighboring Kepublic and of 

 Canada. 



Needless, to say how much the citizens of Quebec 

 appreciate the honor conferred on the Ancient Capital of 

 this province, by its selection for the annual summer 

 meeting of the learned Congress here assembled. 



Needless any encomium on the object of this assem- 

 blage ; it commends itself to the attention of the whole 

 continent; it takes in every spot, where, by God's 

 bounty, a tree can grow ! 



It is our felicity this day, to extend the right hand 

 of good fellowship to, and commune with, gifted writers 

 and specialists, who have come to us from afar — several 

 not without inconvenience and some fatigue — the 

 bearers of a message of good will, seeking to proclaim 

 to the American world (for their utterance duly chro- 

 nicled by the press, will reach far beyond the bound- 

 aries of this province), the results of conscientious 

 studies and mature experience, as to the best modes 

 resorted to, in France, in Germany and elsewhere, of 

 restoring decaying, in many cases alas ! ruined forests : 

 a momentous question indeed for the present, and of 

 deep, very deep import for the future ; and if speaking 

 for our own land, what would rural Canada be 

 without fuel during the inexorable chills of January 



