692 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Canadian 



Department 



By Ellwood Wilson 



Secretary, Canadian Society of Forest 

 Engineers 



On the eighteenth of September Mr. 

 Clyde Leavitt, Forester to the Dominion 

 Railway Commission, and Mr. Robson 

 Black, Secretary of the Canadian Forestry 

 Association, and the writer made an in- 

 spection trip along the hne of the National 

 Transcontinental Railway, operated by the 

 Quebec Government, from La Tuque, whicli 

 is about 200 miles northwest of Quebec, to 

 Amos, a newly settled town not far from 

 the Ontario line, the whole distance cov- 

 ered being about 300 miles. The trip was 

 made on a motor speeder and was under 

 the guidance of Mr. Henry Sorgius, Man- 

 ager of the St. Maurice Forest Protective 

 Association. 



From La Tuque to Parent the country 

 is mostly of the hardwood spruce, balsam 

 type, and has been pretty well lumbered, 

 and was largely burned when construction 

 commenced, until a cooperative association 

 was formed to protect the limits along the 

 right-of-way. From Parent west to Notta- 

 way is almost all of the jack pine- white 

 birch type and from Nottaway west to the 

 Ontario boundary the soil is clayey and 

 covered with dense stands of small black 

 spruce, which rarely attains a greater di- 

 ameter than eight inches at breast height. 



From La Tuque to Nottaway the coun- 

 try is rocky and sandy and unfitted for 

 anything but forest growth. From Notta- 

 way west one is in the so-called clay belt, 

 where the soil is good, the climate no more 

 rigorous than in the district around Quebec 

 City, and in which in time a prosperous 

 farming community should spring up, pro- 

 vided proper fire protection is furnished. 



At Amos, a new town of about 300 peo- 

 ple, boasting a church, several saw-mills, 

 some stores and a hotel, and the resi- 

 dence of the local agent of the Department 

 of Crown Lands, we met the Deputy Min- 

 ister of Lands and Forests, Dr. Dechene, 

 who was making an inspection trip through 

 the district. Just beyond Amos is the in- 

 ternment camp of Austrians and Germans 

 at Spirit Lake, where the interned aliens 

 are engaged in clearing off the forests and 

 making farms for settlers. The disast- 

 rous Ontario fire of last season swept al- 

 most over to this point, and in several of 

 the Quebec villages houses and saw-mills 

 were burned. 



The trip showed us the absolute need of 

 patrol on the line of the railroad beyond 

 the territory patrolled by the St. Maurice 



Forest Protective Association. In its terri- 

 tory there have been no large fires for four 

 years and the result is very marked." The 

 country is green and the young growth is 

 doing well. The section from La Tuque to 

 Nottaway, about two hundred and fifty 

 miles, should on no account be settled, for 

 there is practically no agricultural soil, but 

 should be set aside as a forest reserve. 



Mr. Ruy Campbell has lately returned 

 from Europe, where he went with a govern- 

 ment commission to inspect conditions in 

 that unhappy countrj-. He said the point 

 which interested him most was the evi- 

 dence of forest management in the moun- 

 tainous region inland from Bordeau.x and 

 Limoges, a high plateau of sandy country, 

 with patches of managed forests of from a 

 hundred to a couple of thousand acres, and 

 showing us the way in which things should 

 be handled in this country. Tliroughout 

 this region cutting had quite evidently been 

 accelerated on account of the demand for 

 posts for use in the trenches. Everything 

 was cut from five inches upwards and the 

 largest trees were ten inches on the stump. 

 The litter was carefully cleared up and the 

 small branches piled to be used for fuel. 

 The durability of the oak floors in the old 

 houses was also noted; some of these had 

 been down for a couple of hundred years 

 and still retained their beauty. In Eng- 

 land the extensive use of creosoted wood 

 was noted, and the railroad ties were larger 

 and longer and seemed good for at least 

 ten vears' longer service tlian with us. 



The forest survey of New Brunswick is, 

 under Mr. P. Z. Caverhill, progressing 

 favorably, about 200,000 acres having been 

 covered to date, and some of the maps are 

 nearly completed. A couple of points have 

 presented themselves which required im- 

 mediate attention, such as the examination 

 of licensed lands for the cutting of under- 

 sized trees for pulp, examination of areas 

 for settlement purposes ; in one case 4000 

 acres had to be examined. The result of 

 this work was so satisfactory that the 

 Premier has ordered a soil-type map to be 

 made of the whole forest area, which will 

 be invaluable in the opening of lands for 

 settlement. The Premier has made an 

 inspection trip of some of the work and 

 has taken a great interest in it. The ques- 

 tion of a better system of fire protection 

 will come up soon and New Brunswick will 

 soon have a record to be proud of. 



Mr. H. G. Schanche who has been with 

 the Laurentide Company. Limited, and is 

 now finishing his forestry work at Penn- 

 sylvania State College, has been elected an 

 Associate Member of the Canadian Society 

 of Forest Engineers. 



Mr. B. K. Ayres. of the Canadian So- 

 ciety of Forest Engineers, is moving shortly 

 from Ansonia. Connecticut, where he has 

 been with the Ansonia Forest Products Com- 

 pany, to Concord, New Hampshire, where 

 he will operate on his own timber lands. 



M. A. Grainger. Acting Chief Forester, 

 who outlined briefly the scope of the 

 British Columbia Forest Branch and its 

 relation to the lumber industry, and H. R. 

 MacMillan, who tendered evidence con- 

 cerning the export position as affecting the 

 British Columbia lumber industry, were 

 among the witnesses examined by the 

 Dominion Royal Commission during its 

 sittings at ^'ictoria, September 20-22. 



Mr. H. R. MacMillan, who for the last 

 year and a half has been engaged in a 

 study of the lumber export markets of the 

 world, for the Dominion Department of 

 Trade and Commerce, has tendered his 

 resignation as Chief Forester to the Hon. 

 \V. R. Ross, Minister of Lands, in order 

 to accept a position with the Victoria Lum- 

 ber and Manufacturing Company, of 

 Chemainus, British Columbia. Mr. Mac- 

 Millan was one of the first Canadians to 

 take up forestry as a profession, and has 

 been prominently identified with the for- 

 estry movement in Canada for almost ten 

 years, first in tlie Dominion Forestry 

 Branch, and, since 1912. with the British 

 Columbia Forest Service. His former and 

 present associates will keenU' regret Mr. 

 MacMillan's decision to sever his connec- 

 tion with the governmental forestry work. 

 but wish him all success in his new position 



Dr. H. N. Whit lord and Mr. Roland D. 

 Craig, having completed their report to the 

 Commission of Conservation concerning 

 the area of merchantable timber in British 

 Columbia, in which work they have had the 

 cooperation of the Provincial Forest Ser- 

 vice, have now left the province, the for- 

 mer to take up a position in the Forest 

 School, Yale University, and the latter 

 having gone to Ottawa. 



Mr. Louis B. Beale. Lumber Commis- 

 sioner for British Columbia, stationed at 

 Toronto, has returned to Victoria for con- 

 sultation with the Forest Branch, and the 

 lumber manufacturers, concerning the 

 future development of that important work. 

 The British Columbia Lumber Exhibit, 

 under Mr. Scale's management at the recent 

 Canadian National Exhibition, attracted 

 notable attention, and as evidence of the 

 growing interest in the Eastern market for 

 British Columbia woods, it may be men- 

 tioned that during the first two or three 

 days over 3000 samples of wood were taken 

 away by persons interested, and hundreds 



