1917] The Ottawa Naturalist. 159 



one-half forest and Germany and Austria, respectively, one-quarter and 

 one-third of their area in forest. The above seems sufficient reply to 

 those who argue that the making of forest reserves will hinder the 

 development of Canada. 



The wood manufactures of this Dominion have a total yearly value 

 of ?1 77,000,000. In respect to capital invested, wages paid and cost 

 of material they take first place, and the value of the product is one of 

 the highest among the industries. Wood industries employ 110,000 

 employees, as compared with 66,000 for iron and steel, their nearest 

 competitor. 



In the present war wood is playing a great part. In the trenches 

 it is used for walls, floors and braces. Behind the lines it is used for 

 temporary buildings for the use of combatants and homeless non- 

 combatants. For bridges, wharves and similar structures much is used 

 and for replacing permanent structures destroyed by enemies it is 

 indispensable. Wood cellulose is used for making a substitute for 

 cotton for bandages, etc., crepe paper for slings and fibre board for 

 splints. Paper clothing is worn to quite an extent in the Russian, 

 Austrian and German armies, and in Austria paper is displacing many 

 other textile products from flour bags to twine. The chief products 

 of the forest, in Canada, are lumber, wood for pulp, poles and railway 

 ties. 



In order to give the forest a chance to develop properly, it is 

 necessary to ward off many injurious factors. Chief of these is fire. 

 The average annual loss through forest fires in Canada is five million 

 dollars, and it is estimated that two-thirds of Canada's forests have 

 been burned over. Only seventeen per cent, of the forest area explored 

 in the prairie provinces had been found to contain merchantable 

 timber. The most important by far of the means of fire protection was 

 the education of the inhabitants and frequenters of forest regions to 

 guard against fire. After that, fire patrol, lookout stations, trails and 

 various fire-fighting appliances had their places. 



The forest must also be protected against insects and fungi. In 

 British Columbia serious damage had been done to the western yellow 

 pine by a bark-boring beetle. Poplar on Dominion lands had been 

 much injured by a species of fungus, the chestnut in the United States 

 had been almost exterminated by the chestnut tree blight, and a like 

 fate was threatening the white pine of the east. The White Pine 

 Blister Rust had obtained such a footing that much of the adult 

 timber was threatened, and the planting of white pine put out of the 

 question. 



Improvements in forestry practice in the work of the Forestry 

 Branch had been the marking of trees for removal, the disposal of 

 brush after cutting and the studv of natural regeneration and the 

 natural mixture of species in the forest. The Forest Products Labora- 



