CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By Ell WOOD Wilson 



His Royal Highness, the Duke of Connaught, 

 has consented to act as Patron of the Canadian 

 Forestry Association for the year 1915. 



The Minister of Railways and Canals, the 

 Hon. Frank Cochrane, is negotiating with the 

 Provincial Governments of New Brunswick, 

 Quebec and Ontario for the establishment of 

 motor speeder patrols on the National Trans- 

 continental and Intercolonial Railways. This 

 will be a great step in advance and should go 

 far to prevent forest fires being set by the 

 railways. It is to be hoped that the good 

 work will be continued 'and that the efficiency 

 of Government owned railways will approach 

 that of those privately owned. Mr. McNeillie, 

 late with the C. P. R. has joined the staff of 

 the Intercolonial with headquarters at 

 Moncton. 



The work on the big hydroelectric plant of 

 the Laurentide Company, Ltd., which was 

 temporarily suspended last fall has started up 

 again and will be rapidly pushed to completion. 

 The dam is 1,700 feet long with a maximum 

 height of 90 feet and when completed will have 

 six 20,000 horse power units. The St. Maurice 

 River will be backed up for nearly 20 miles, 

 and will be navigable for steamboats for 72 

 miles above Grand' Mere. This company is 

 establishing a timber reserve by planting up 

 lands bought for the flowage rights, 150,000 

 trees, mostly Norway Spruce, were planted in 

 1914 and have wintered exceptionally well. 

 Two hundred thousand more will be planted 

 this month and two to three hundred thousand 

 this fall and as soon as possible 1,000,000 trees 

 per annum will be planted which is the Com- 

 pany's present annual cut. An extension 

 of one and one half acres is being made to the 

 Company's nursery in which some experiments 

 in tree raising will be carried out. 



The reindeer imported by the Laurentide 

 Company last summer have wintered well, 

 but as they w^ere travelling just before the 

 rutting season no young were born. Two 

 bucks were trained last winter and worked 

 nicely in harness. 



The students of the Quebec Forestry School 

 are in their spring camp at Burrill's Siding on 

 the Estate of Mr. G. C. Pich^, Chief Forester 

 of Quebec. Mr. Piche is also building a house 

 for the use of the students at the Government 

 Nursery at Berthierville, which will be a 

 model of its kind. There has been a large 

 demand for trees for private planting from 

 this nursery and its entire output will soon be 

 called for. 



system along its new line from North Bay to 

 Port Arthur, in accordance with the require- 

 ments of the Dominion Railway Commission. 

 There will be twenty-three special patrolmen 

 with track velocipedes, and two head patrol- 

 men with power speeders, covering portions of 

 the line where the fire hazard is greatest. 

 Where the situation will permit, the section 

 men and other regular employees will perform 

 such patrol work and fire fighting as may be 

 necessary. 



Davis W. Lusk, Jr., Yale Forest School, 

 1912, is at Calgary, Alberta, investigating fire 

 damage for the Dominion Government. 



Last season the Laurentide Company, Ltd., 

 made some experiments with the Jenssen Tree 

 Planter and found it so satisfactory that ten 

 more planters were ordered this year and will 

 be used in the planting operations. They 

 were found faster than setting the trees by 

 hand in holes made with a mattock or dibble 

 and it was found that the mortality among 

 the trees set with the planter was considerably 

 less than among those planted in the old way. 

 Comparative costs of the two methods will be 

 published later. 



Mr. R. R. Bradley, Forester of the New 

 Brunswick Railway Company reports that 

 several students who worked for him last 

 season have enlisted. Among them is Mr. 

 R. K. Shives, who has gone to Toronto to 

 join the aviation corps. He was the first 

 applicant. 



The damage done by the spruce bud worm 

 last summer was very serious throughout 

 New Brunswick, much more so than during the 

 previous summer. Spruce hillsides seen from 

 a distance took on the same brown tinge that 

 a severe scorching would give them. Over 

 large sections of the St. John River and 

 Miramichi vallej's practically all the new 

 growth was destroyed. It seems that the 

 chief danger in the work of the insect lies in 

 the weakening of the trees which must render 

 them liable to attacks by more deadly insects, 

 such as the bark beetle. 



The Canadian Northern Ontario Railway 

 is arranging to install an efficient fire protective 



There is another disease attacking the fir 

 and cedar and to some extent the pine in New 

 Brunswick. The effect is to dry out and kill 

 the twigs and branches and in some cases 

 whole trees of these species. The branch 

 instead of losing its needles, as when attacked 

 by the spruce bud worm, will die, and turn a 

 brilliant red until the needles fall off. This 

 blight does not seem to affect the spruce. 



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