758 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



sixty miles of railway, burning the tim- 

 ber back in some cases more than a 

 mile from the track. On August 3d 

 eight fires were still burning. This 

 new railway has not yet been put un- 

 der the control of the Railway Com- 

 mission's Fire Protection Department 

 and both the Province of Quebec and 

 the Fire Protective Associations are 

 powerless. This shows a curious anom- 

 aly. A Government striving with all 

 its might to prevent forest fires and 

 yet itself setting the most of them and 

 devastating a virgin country whose only 

 resource is its timber. 



An investigation of forestry condi- 

 tions has been made in England and n 

 is shown that there are large areas of 

 land which are only suitable for grow- 

 ing timber and it is estimated that m 

 time $180,000,000.00 worth of pulp 

 wood could be grown. This is now 

 imported. 



Professor Tourney, head of the Yale 

 Forest School, is making a long canoe 

 trip through the central part of the 

 Province of Quebec with Messrs. Roth- 

 ery, of Vitale & Rothery, and Mr. S. L. 

 de Carteret, of the Quebec & St. Mau- 

 rice Industrial Co. They will make an 

 examination of the timber and discuss 

 the best methods of handling. On their 

 way in they visited the Laurentide Com- 

 pany at Grand Mere and were the 

 guests of the Forestry Division. 



Mr. Piche, Chief Forester of Quebec, 

 is planning extensive improvements to 

 the Government's Nursery at Berthier- 

 ville. He will build a commodious 

 house for students and visitors and ex- 

 pects to increase the capacity of the 

 nursery to 1,000,000 trees per annum. 



The Quebec Government has post- 

 poned its auction sale of timber limit.s 



owing to the war. 



Hon. W. H. Hearst, Minister of 

 Lands, Forests and Mines in the On- 

 tario Government, has under consider- 

 ation a scheme to develop the country 

 and at the same time give work to the 

 imemployed. It is to open up alternate 

 quarter sections of land in Northern 

 Ontario by clearing the land and sell- 

 ing the pulp wood. This would prepare 

 the land for settlers at practically no 

 cost to the Government, probably at a 

 small profit. No mention is made of 

 what disposition would be made of the 

 hardwoods. 



The Lower Ottawa Forest Protective 

 Association has had a busy season. At 

 one time five hundred extra men were 

 taken on to extinguish fires. Forty 

 settlers have been arrested, convicted 

 and fined. This will make the work of 

 fire protection during the coming season 

 much easier as the settlers will now 

 have some respect for the laws which 

 had practically become a dead letter 

 through lack of enforcement. 



The fire situation in British Colum- 

 bia has been the worst since 1910, es- 

 pecially in the southern part. Alberta 

 and Northern Ontario have also suf- 

 fered badly. There is great need for 

 the elimination of politics and the in- 

 troduction or extension of the merit 

 system in both the Dominion and Pro- 

 vincial Governments. 



Ten thousand tons of wood ready to 

 be made into pulp were destroyed on 

 July 24th at the Mills of the Gres Falls 

 Company, the Canadian Subsidiary of 

 the Union Bag and Paper Company at 

 Cap de la Magdelaine, near Three 

 Rivers, Quebec. 



Mr. J. S. Bates, who is in charge of 

 the Dominion Forest Products Labora- 

 tory, has returned from a trip to North 

 Carolina, taken with the object of in- 

 vestigating the possibilities of distilling 

 British Columbia yellow pine. 



The reindeer imported by the Laur- 

 entide Company have been successfully 

 distributed to two of their depots and 

 training them for sled work will begin 

 next month. This company have added 

 to their forest plantations 44,000 Nor- 

 way spruce and red pine from their 

 own nursery, which has been nearlv 

 doubled in size. 



