THE SOUTH TOBIQUE LAKES. 
470 
This country, with other tracts at the headwaters of our great rivers, 
may be preserved for ages, and, by judicious management, it may 
yield every year a handsome revenue, and still steadily increase in 
value. New^ Brunswick’s greatest source of wealth must be her 
forests. What has taken many generations of the past to come to 
perfection should not be despoiled by one generation. It should be 
the pride of our government and people, and a sign of their growing 
public spirit and scientific knowledge, sacredly to hand down that 
wealth that we have inherited to future citizens of the country. 
The dangers threatening extinction to our forests are three : from 
forest fires; from selfish, illegal and unintelligent plans of lumbering; 
and from the cutting of young trees for pulp mills. The bare tracts 
of country in the southern parts of the province, and on the Nepisiguit, 
and some portions of the Miramichi, show how a country may be 
utterly devastated by ravages from fire, without hope of restoration to 
its former condition for many generations. The pictures of deso- 
lation from forest fires, which can be seen from so many hill-tops 
in the province, should show us how careful we should be to lessen 
this great danger to our forest wealth ; and not only have forests been 
destroyed, — in many instances the land has been rendered incapable 
of production perhaps for centuries. 
If our lumbermen select the largest and best trees for their opera- 
tions. gathering the tops and branches, with some of the smaller 
growth in the denser portions, for the pulp-mill manufacturer, this 
region of the South Tobique and others through the province would 
increase in value each succeeding year. The great need in these 
forests is a judicious pruning of small trees, especially on the low 
grounds, in order to give an opportunity for the stronger and more 
shapely trees to grow ; and the careful removal of branches and tops 
to lessen the danger from forest fires. Thus the waste products of 
the lumberman, which have been the source of so much damage in 
times past to our forests, and the stunted and misshapen growth of 
smaller trees in the denser woods, would not only be removed, but 
much of it made use of for manufacturing purposes. In Germany the 
forests, in spite of the large and profitable lumber “cut ’’each year, 
are constantly becoming more valuable. And this is the result of 
trained and intelligent supervision. And so it would be in New 
Brunswick if similar methods prevailed. Our game and fish wardens 
