CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



597 



board. With these weaknesses to con- 

 tend with even if poHtics is kept out, and 

 with the added danger of marrying 

 political troubles, too, our present effi- 

 cient forestry system would be sure to 

 suffer, as it always has elsewhere, if it 

 :.s tied to anything else. It is looked 

 at as a model now. Why endanger it ? 

 "Finally, there is one thing which 

 differentiates State forest work from 

 all other State work. This is that under 

 the modem development of forest 

 protection, the latter is not purely a 

 State function any more than it is a 



private or Federal one. The three 

 protective agencies cooperate, at great 

 mutual advantage in economy and 

 effectiveness. They act together as a 

 sort of board of public welfare. While 

 the State runs its business independently 

 in most functions, it cannot in this. 

 Therefore, it must have its Forestry 

 board so constituted as to deal most 

 effectively with the other two agencies. 

 As these are purely forestry agencies, 

 the present system is logical and 

 harmonious. A combined board would 

 have no such simple machinery. 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By Elwood Wilson 



The most important need of forest protection 

 in Canada at present is that the Government 

 owned and operated railroads, The Inter- 

 colonial, International and National Trans- 

 continental, should have an adequate fire 

 protection system. As they run for the most 

 part through heavily forested areas and on the 

 eastern section of the National Transconti- 

 nental there is no possibility of any freight 

 except that which comes from the forest and 

 its products. 



Last August the management of these roads 

 issued orders to their roadmasters, section 

 foremen and train crews to keep a sharp lookout 

 for fires and to extinguish them wherever 

 found. Everyone who has ever had any 

 experience with section men knows that they 

 have so much other work to do and so many 

 miles of track to keep in order, that without 

 proper inspection, they will not pay much 

 attention to forest fires. This matter is con- 

 sidered so important that the following im- 

 portant bodies have taken action and have 

 written the Hon. Frank Cochrane, Minister 

 of Railways and Canals, asking him to make 

 eflfective the same regulations on the Govern- 

 ment Railways which have proved so successful 

 on privately owned railroads under the juris- 

 diction of the Dominion Railways Commission. 

 The Canadian Forestry Association, the 

 Department of Lands and Forests of Quebec, 

 the Quebec Limit Holders Association, the 

 St. Maurice Forest Protective Association and 

 Sir William Price. The Conservation Com- 

 mission has for two years been urging the same 

 action. The regulations mentioned above, 

 require that a competent inspector shall have 

 supervision of fire protection work, that during 

 dangerous times extra patrols in addition to 

 section men shall patrol the right-of-way and 

 that the same shall be properly clean of all 

 debris and inflammable material. In an inter- 

 view had with Mr. Cochrane in January by a 



committee of the Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion, he said that he wanted to do all in his 

 power to aid the cause of forest protection and 

 to save Canada's forests and it is hoped that 

 everyone who has any interest in this important 

 matter will write the Honorable Frank Coch- 

 rane, Minister of Railways and Canals, asking 

 him to take prompt action along the above lines 

 before the middle of April, when the danger 

 season commences. 



The Railway Commissions regulations have 

 been so practically framed and under its system 

 of inspection so well carried out that forest 

 fires from railroads privately owned have 

 materially declined and wiU soon be a thing of 

 the past. The Canadian Pacific Railway has 

 gone at this matter with characteristic vigor 

 and under Mr. A. D. MacTier, assisted by 

 Mr. B. M. Winegar, has built up a splendid 

 system of fire protection which bids fair to 

 wipe out fire claims at an early date. 



Mr. Pich^, Chief Forester of the Department 

 of Lands and Forests of Quebec, has just com- 

 pleted some valuable tables which should be 

 distributed to the lumber companies and limit 

 holders. These are a table of the contents of 

 tree in board" feet measure based on the 

 measurement of 4,525 trees and giving the 

 amounts which can be deducted for diflferent 

 defects: also tables showing the total number 

 of board feet contained in balsam, white and 

 black spruce trees, based on measurements of 

 2,187, 2,886 and 1,638 trees, respectively. 



The following gentlemen have been elected 

 to the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers, 

 active member, Mr. Gutches, Forest Supervisor 

 for Alberta, and for associate membership, 

 Mr. Geo. Tunstell, Mr. Davis W. Lusk, Jr., 

 Mr. Geo._ S. Smith and Mr. W. J. Boyd, all of 

 the Dominion Forest Service. 



