REVIEWS 465 



under the stimulus of the Commission of Conservation, in which the 

 Forestry Branch cooperates. Curiously enough, the government rail- 

 roads do not come under this jurisdiction and are great sinners. 



The financial loss of the fire harvest is not estimated, but from the 

 material data given, one would be justified to place it at least at 5 to 6 

 million dollars. One large fire burned nearly 100,000 acres. 



That the reservations suffer in the same proportion appears from the 

 fact, that, while for the country on the whole (leaving out the Hudson 

 Bay railroad territory) 1,455 fires burning over 905,000 acres were 

 reported, on the reserves 205 fires, burning over 360,000 acres, occurred, 

 the percentage of the causes being almost identical. Lightning is charged 

 with over 4 per cent (2.4 on reserves). The fires on the reserves, to be 

 sure, come in mostly from outside. 



The timber operations which the Forestry Branch supervises are 

 small, but are now carried on conservatively, including brush disposal, 

 which has been proved quite practicable, financially and otherwise. 

 Unfortunately, before the reservations were set aside, most of the good 

 timber had been disposed of to timberlimit holders, and the supervision 

 of their work, ridiculously enough, is placed in another branch of the 

 Department of the Interior, thus dividing authority in the reserves, 

 much to their detriment. 



Systematic planting on reserves, which has hitherto been sporadic 

 and experimental, is to be begun, or was begun in 1916, the large nur- 

 series at Indian Head, and the new one at Sutherland, to furnish the 

 plant material. For this ptu-pose, on sandy sites, white spruce, 3-year- 

 olds, jack pine and Scotch pine, 2-year-olds, are to be used as having 

 demonstrated best and cheapest results, seeding and one-year-olds 

 having proved a failure. 



The first-named nursery distributed over 4.5 million plants for 

 prairie planting, around 1,000 plants to the single applicant. 



The whole revenue of the reserves from all sources does not come to 

 $34,000, while the expenditure for nurseries and planting amounts to 

 nearly $50,000. 



Fish, game, and grazing regulations also occupy the forest officers. 

 In the game protection a cooperation with the provincial authorities 

 which administer the game laws is practised. Formerly, hunting on 

 reserves was generally forbidden, now parts of reserves are limited to 

 serve as game sanctuaries, while adjacent territory is open to hunting, 

 thereby relieving a certain amount of opposition to extension of forest 

 reserves. 



