CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



1071 



Canadian Department 



By Ellwood Wilson 

 Secretary Canadian Society of Forest Engineers 



The campaign against those responsible 

 for setting forest fires has been waged vig- 

 orously and successfully this season. The 

 Lower Ottawa Forest Protective Associa- 

 tion has eight convictions against settlers 

 who carelessly allowed their clearing fires 

 to get away from them, and the St. Mau- 

 rice Forest Protective Association has had 

 one very important conviction and ten 

 more cases under way. These convictions 

 are having an important eflfect as they show 

 that the laws are really meant to be en- 

 forced and bring home to the careless ones 

 the necessity of taking precautions, in a 

 way which appeals to them. As soon as 

 the Governments of the respective Prov- 

 inces make it necessary to have permits in 

 order to start fires for clearing, no matter 

 what the time of year, settlers' fires will be 

 a thing of the past. 



The Canadian Society of Forest Engi- 

 neers has just been incorporated under 

 the laws of the Province of Ontario. This 

 Society has had a healthy and steady 

 growth and is increasing in importance and 

 influence. It now numbers forty-eight 

 active, thirty associate, two honorary and 

 two student members. Mr. P. S. Ridsdale, 

 Secretary of the American Forestry As- 

 sociation, has just been elected an Associ- 

 ate Member. 



An interesting experiment was under- 

 taken by the Laurentide Company, Ltd., 

 this season. On a good deal of their waste 

 land which is being planted there are old 

 hardwood stumps and a good deal of young 

 hardwood brush. This grows much faster 

 than spruce or pine and on two of the 

 plantations was seriously retarding the 

 growth of the plantations. A couple of 

 small goats were purchased and turned 

 into these plantations but they promptly 

 commenced to eat the planted trees as well 

 as the hardwood. The Company's herd 

 of reindeer was then tried and although 

 they have been grazing on the plantations 

 all summer they have not eaten a single 

 spruce or pine but have cleaned off the 

 poplar, birch, and maple well and the conif- 

 erous plants show as good a growth as 

 those in the open. A few plants have been 

 injured where the deer have made roads 

 but the number is so small as to be en- 

 tirely negligible. The feed has agreed 

 with the deer and they are in wonderful 

 condition. This proposition of natural 

 hardwood regeneration on burnt over and 

 cut over lands was beginning to be a 

 serious one as it is entirely out of the 

 question to cut this, either before or after 

 planting, and it retards the growth of the 

 plants dominated by it to such an extent 

 that it seemed almost hopeless. 



The Canadian Lumberman for Sept. 15th 

 prints an excellent article on "The Prob- 

 lem of Slash Disposal" by Mr. Clyde 

 Leavitt, Forester to the Conservation Com- 

 mission. The whole question is thoroughly 

 discussed and definite measures to help 

 the present situation are proposed, all of 

 them practical and practicable. 



Mr. R. H. MacMillan, Chief Forester of 

 British Columbia, and acting at present as 

 special trade commissioner, traveling 

 abroad in the interests of his Province, has 

 completed his work in England successfully 

 and is now en route to South Africa. 



Work has commenced on the large new 

 storage dam being built by the Quebec 

 Government to control the flow of the 

 St. Maurice River. This dam is forty-four 

 miles from the nearest railroad, the Na- 

 tional Transcontinental, and barges and 

 steamers are being provided to carry sup- 

 plies, cement, etc., to the first rapid, a dis- 

 tance of twenty-eight miles and from that 

 point to the dam site, sixteen miles, a rail- 

 road will be built. This dam will be the 

 largest water conservation scheme in the 

 world and will hold back twice the amount 

 of water stored by the enlarged Assouan 

 dam on the the Nile. It will be about 2,000 

 feet long and eighty feet high at the high- 

 est point. There are many large lakes above 

 this dam, one being over thirty miles in 

 length, and the level of all of these lakes 

 will be raised. The timber which will be 

 destroyed is for the most part scrubby 

 black spruce, balsam, birch and poplar and 

 little of it has any commercial value. There 

 are no settlements of any kind, only one 

 Hudson Bay Post on Lake Obiduan, the 

 country being inhabited by Indians. 



Tenders are also being asked for a dam 

 to be constructed at the outlet of Lake 

 St. Francis, on the St. Francis River, on 

 the south shore of the St. Lawrence, 

 which serves a number of important in- 

 dustries which have been much hampered 

 by low water in tjie summer time. It may 

 be of interest to American readers to know 

 that in the little Indian village of Pierre- 

 ville, near the mouth of the St. Francis 

 River, it is said, the grandmother of Sena- 

 tor Matthew S. Quay, of Pennsylvania, was 

 born. She was an Indian woman of the 

 Abenaki tribe and I am told that Senator 

 Quay's picture hangs over the altar in the 

 Indian Church. 



The report of the Fire Inspection De- 

 partment of the Dominion Railway Com- 

 mission shows that during 1914 a total of 

 1,346 fires were reported in forested sec- 

 tions within three hundred feet of rail- 

 road rights-of-way, on lines under the juris- 



diction of the Railway Commission. These 

 do not include Government Railways or 

 lines under Provincial charter, about 15 

 per cent of the total mileage. A total area 

 of 191,770 acres was burned, valued at 

 $443,443, of which $203,987 was merchant- 

 able timber. Although the season was one 

 of the worst in years the railway fires show 

 a decrease and the situation is steadily im- 

 proving. Two suits were entered against 

 railways in the Parry Sound District in 

 Ontario and the Grand Jury in making its 

 presentment protested against the non- 

 enforcement of the forest fire laws and 

 the neghgence of the officers charge with 

 this enforcement. 



There is at present a great demand for 

 box shooks for making ammunition boxes. 

 The specifications are very strict and there 

 is difficulty in obtaining material. 



His Eminence the Cardinal-Archbishop 

 of Quebec, always a strong supporter of 

 the work of the Canadian Forestry Asso- 

 ciation, will soon issue a letter to be read 

 in all the Churches of the Province, re- 

 minding all faithful Catholics of their 

 duty to protect the forests from fire and 

 to conserve them for posterity. This will 

 be of great assistance in impressing upon 

 all the people the necessity of using greater 

 care with fires and also of observing the 

 forest fire laws. 



Mr. George Chahoon. Jr., a Director of 

 the Canadian Forestry Association and As- 

 sociate Member of the Canadian Society 

 of Forest Engineers, has just been elected 

 President of the Laurentide Co., Ltd., the 

 largest and most progressive paper com- 

 pany in Canada, to succeed the late Sir 

 William Van Home. Mr. Chahoon. like 

 Sir William, was born in the United States, 

 being a native of Au Sable Forks, in the 

 Adirondacks, where his family has long 

 had paper interests. He is still a young 

 man, being only forty-three. He toolc 

 charge of the Laurentide Company about 

 twelve years ago and has built it up to 

 its present high standing. His broad gen- 

 eral interests and open mindedness early 

 persuaded him that only happy and con- 

 tented employes give their best work and 

 he has done everything to make Grand 

 Mere, not only livable but also attractive 

 and has succeeded in building up one of 

 the prettiest villages in Canada. Realizing 

 that a cheap and steady supply of raw ma- 

 terial was of vital necessity to this Com- 

 pany he became interested in forestry and 

 has done more along practical lines to util- 

 ize what this science had to offer than 

 almost any man in Canada, taking not 

 only a selfish interest in it but looking at 

 it from the broadest standpoint and urg- 

 ing the Provincial Government to a more- 

 progressive policy. The first large forest 

 survey in Quebec was that made by his . 

 Company and it is also the first one to take.- 

 up commercial planting on a large scale. 



