Current Literature 303 



There is one suggestion we would make in regard to this 

 report. There are three principal phases to the fire protection 

 situation in Canada. These are railway fire protection, of which 

 we have a great deal ; brush disposal, of which we have not very 

 much, and forest protection, for which we spend well over 

 $1,000,000 per annum without knowing whether we get any- 

 thing or not. We think that a report of this magnitude entitled 

 "Forest Protection in Canada," should tell us something about 

 this important phase of the subject, 



W. N. M. 



Report of the Director of Forestry for the Fiscal Year Ending 

 March SI, 1915. By R. H. Campbell. Part VI of the Annual 

 Report of the Department of the Interior. Ottawa, Canada. 

 1915. Pp. 102. 



This annual report is now available as a separate, reprinted 

 from the Departmental report. It follows the same general lines 

 as previous ones, being made up of a general survey of conditions 

 during the year by the Director, with separate reports by each 

 of the officers in charge of the four inspection districts, the Chief 

 of the Tree Planting Division and the Superintendent of the 

 Forest Products Laboratories. No additions to the forest reserve 

 area are reported, although large areas of land in the northern 

 Forest Belt have been examined and those found unfit for agri- 

 cultural development have been temporarily reserved. Attention 

 is directed to the enormous areas in this region that have been 

 fi.re swept in comparatively recent years and to the minute pro- 

 portion of the region that now bears merchantable timber. The 

 report emphasizes the extreme danger of complete and almost 

 irremediable denudation that will result from the burning of 

 these young stands of reproduction which have mostly not yet 

 reached seed-bearing age. It rightly considers this one of the 

 most important problems in forest protection before the Forestry 

 Branch. 



The fire situation during 1914 was extremely dangerous, 

 especially in Alberta and British Columbia. In all, 1986 fires 

 were reported, of which 408 were on the Forest Reserves and 

 1578 outside the Reserves. The area burned over was 691,000 



