THE CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By Elwood W11.SON 



Mr. R. H. Campbell, Director of the 

 Dominion Forest Service, has gone 

 abroad for a trip and will visit the dif- 

 ferent European countries, making a 

 study of administrative questions and 

 forestry methods. 



Mr. G. C. Piche, head of the Quebec 

 Forest School, is on his annual field 

 trip with the students. The place 

 chosen this year is Mr. Piche's own 

 estate of about 1,500 acres at Burrill's 

 siding, about thirty miles north of 

 Three Rivers. 



The reorganization of the Fire Pro- 

 tection work of the Canadian Pacific 

 Railway by which this work will be 

 handled by the Forestry Department, is 

 a most important change and will in- 

 crease the efficiency of the work. 



The coming convention of the Cana- 

 dian Forestry Association to be held in 

 Halifax, N. S., from the 1st to the 14th 

 of September, will be a very important 

 one. It is the first one ever held in 

 Nova Scotia, and the attendance prom- 

 ises to be large. Halifax is a beautiful 

 city and contains much of historic in- 

 terest. 



Mr. J. E. Rothery, of the firm of 

 \'itale & Rothery, of New York, has 

 just been elected to active membership 

 in the Canadian Society of Forest En- 

 gineers. This election is the first of a 

 non-resident of Canada, the restriction 

 of the membership to Canadian resi- 

 dents having been removed at the last 

 meeting following the lead of the So- 

 ciety of American Foresters. It is de- 

 sirable that the relations between these 

 two professional societies should be as 

 close as possible. 



The long drought and cold weather 

 which continued into June this spring 

 tuade the fire-protection situation one of 



great difficulty. In the territory cov- 

 ered by the St. Maurice Forest Pro- 

 tective Association there were more 

 fires than during the previous season, 

 but all but two were extinguished by 

 the rangers. Settler's fires, which have 

 usually been nearly half of the total 

 number, were reduced by over fifty per 

 cent, owing to the action taken by the 

 Government in conjunction with the 

 Protective Association last season, 

 namely, warning the settlers at the be- 

 ginning of the season and then arrest- 

 ing promptly and fining all offenders 

 against the regulations. This spring the 

 settlers and their parish priests are join- 

 ing the Association in a petition to the 

 Government to make a law forbidding 

 the setting of fires for clearing land at 

 any season without a written permit 

 from the fire-ranger of the district. 

 Most of the fires this spring were set 

 by river drivers employed by the com- 

 panies forming the Association, and 

 stringent measures are to be taken to 

 prevent this next season. The Quebec 

 & St. Maurice Industrial Company have 

 not allowed their drivers to smoke this 

 spring, and this has proved a great 

 preventive. One of the two fires men- 

 tioned above was set by the section men 

 of one of the railway contractors burn- 

 ing ties and spread over twenty-five 

 square miles. The section men were 

 warned not to set fires, but their fore- 

 man was ordered by their engineer to 

 go ahead, and this was done although 

 the weather was extremely dry. Such 

 gross carelessness on the part of men 

 who are well educated enough to know 

 ])etter is inexcusable and shows the need 

 for education about fires for the gen- 

 eral public. 



The Lower Ottawa Forest Protective 

 Association was formed too late this 

 spring to allow for getting their field 

 work in proper shape, but in spite of 

 this they did excellent work and demon- 

 strated the value of cooperative effort. 



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