File:Canadian forest industries January-June 1919 (1919) (20342314679).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries January-June 1919
Identifier: canadianforjanjun1919donm (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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140 CANADA LUMBERMAN AND WOODWORKER M;iy 1, 1919 An Accurate Survey of the Forests of Canada Admirable Address by W. Gerard Power, President of the Canadian Lumbermen's Association, on Conservation" before Canadian Forestry Association To ask a practical lumberman to speak on Conservation is putting a difficult task indeed before him. His every energy is, as a rule, bent on felling more and more trees, on bringing more and more logs to his mill, on sawing more and more lumber, so that he may give satisfac- tion to his employers or shareholders, and be deemed a success in the oi)inion of his fellow members of the profession. His basic idea is the more production the more dividends, the more dividends the more honor, not to speak of material advantages. It is difficult, indeed, to blame him. In years gone by, when the trade was young in this country, it was generally believed that our forest supi^lies were illimitable and inexhaustible. The idea that the day would ever come when the United States would find itself with its stores on the verge of exhaustion, and, in the words of a celebrated British authority, Mr. M. C. Duchesne, F.S.I., "Canada contains the only vast resources of timber within the limits of the British Empire," never entered the heads of these pioneers, who with their sturdy bush- wackers roamed the forests, heedless of waste and extravagant in method, driven thereto by the one ))rinciple, "To get the logs to the mill, and to get the best." It is not for us in this generation to criticize the methods of our forefathers, and to suggest that their management of the woods was not on the right lines or their system of forestry unsound. Other times, other manners. Who in those days could guess that Canada would one day be called upon to supply timber to the entire world? Aloreover, if the methods of the old-timers were not so scientific as ours, justice forces us to admit that but for them a great portion of the country would still be undeveloped, roads un- opened, and towns and villages as yet unfounded. A number of the provinces, without their activity and industry, would have with great difficulty found means of increasing year by year grants of education, social work, and general development. (Since 1867 the province of Quebec has derived from the forests the sum of $42,000,000). Millions of dollars spent in wages and construction would never have been attracted to the country, and further, it is hardly likely that this Canada of ours would have been so well known to the world as it is to-day. So much for the past. The trade and its members have been great factors in the up-building of our nation, and we have reason to be proud of it and grateful to them. We must look at the present and to the future. To-day the business of production of wood material is the second greatest industry in Canada. What will it be to-morrow? We belong to an age of optimists, and though the bloody carnage in Europe and its consequences have necessarily oppressed us during the past four years, now that the high sun of victory is shining in the heavens and the angel of peace has descended over the world, we feel ourselves warmed and invigorated, ready to face the future with hope and confidence. Every nation on earth freed from the horrid nightmare which has oppressed it, is taking stock and preparing to face the future. The national resources are being carefully investigated in order that every available asset may be put to the utmost practical use. We in Canada have our Re-construction Committee, our Scientific Research Com- mission, and other bodies established for the purpose of directing the nation's most efficient efforts in the best channels. And so it should be with the forestry. What we have got and what we are going to do with it. Are we to look upon our forest as the miner looks upon
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Graphic Chart compiled from Annual Report of Minister of Lands and Forests for Province of Quebec

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