A Forester's Work in a Northern Forest. 7 



could be had of all the different kinds of work, careful inventories 

 kept, and red tape, as opposed to practical system, eliminated. 



With these ends in view, standard instructions have been 

 issued covering different kinds of work; standard report forms, 

 returns of expenses, analyses of costs, survey and valuation sur- 

 vey records, &c, have been prepared, all of a uniform size so that 

 they can be filled into loose leaf binders. By a careful system 

 of cost keeping, different parties doing the same kind of work 

 can have their costs compared and past experience can be used in 

 planning future work. In handling parties so far from a base it 

 is very necessary to have a system which will show just what each 

 has in the way of provisions, outfit and so forth, so that they 

 will not run short and that the work will not be delayed by lack 

 of supplies or necessary equipment. 



Forestry is certainly not worthy of the name unless it is practi- 

 cal, and it seems to the writer that the most rigorous business 

 methods should control its practice. Cost data are sadly needed, 

 and while conditions vary widely in different parts of the country, 

 owing to topography, weather, climatic conditions and so forth, 

 still such records ought to prove just as valuable to the forester as 

 they do to the engineer. 



The forest policy of the Quebec Government is a most admir- 

 able one in theory, with one very serious exception. All timber 

 lands are the property of the Crown and are not sold, but the 

 license to cut is leased, practically in perpetuity, for a nominal 

 ground rent and so much per thousand feet stumpage dues when 

 the timber is cut. Cutting regulations are in force, but there is no 

 adequate inspection and the regulations are obeyed by the licen- 

 sees only because they believe it is to their interest and profit to 

 do so. But the Government reserves the right to take lands out 

 of a license-holder's territory for settlement, giving him until the 

 first day of May, following the issuance of a ticket of location to 

 a settler, to remove the timber down to the diameter limit set by 

 law. The settler generally waits until the Companies have fin- 

 ished their winter's operations before applying for his land, so 

 that there is no possibility of the Company removing the timber, 

 and as the diameter limit does not apply to the settler he is able 

 to cut the land clear, selling either to the original license-holder 



