no transactions of royal scottish arboricultural society. 



3. Dominion Forest Reserves in Manitoba, Saskatch- 

 ewan, Alberta, and in the Railway Belt of British 

 Columbia. 



Conditions vary greatly through the forest reserves. Spruce 

 is generally distributed ; poplar and jack pine form the fire type 

 in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern Alberta, lodgepole 

 pine on the east slope of the Rockies. The Wet Belt in British 

 Columbia provides the Douglas fir-larch and cedar-hemlock 

 types, and the Dry Belt the yellow pine type. However, the 

 main general problems are the same as in the east, and the same 

 studies are being carried on. The enforcement of cutting 

 regulations on timber sales is a well-established principle on the 

 forest reserves, and this feature is favourable to research in 

 connection with logging operations. 



This outlines very briefly the research work of the Dominion 

 Forest Service. It is a record of beginnings rather than results. 



The immediate problems that we have in front of us may be 

 summarised as follows : — We want to know what our timber 

 resources are ; we want to ensure a continuous crop of desirable 

 species, either by cutting regulations or by artificial means ; the 

 desirability of any species depends on economic and silvicultural 

 characteristics and on yield ; in connection with this we want to 

 know the economic possibilities of thinnings ; in order to carry 

 out studies of yield we need some simple, quick and accurate 

 method of determining volume of standing timber, and if we 

 can develop the application of this method to commercial 

 conditions, we will be within measurable distance of a universal 

 volume-table. 



We have a long way to go. We have not yet made anything 

 like a complete inventory of our resources ; we know very little 

 about methods of ensuring continuous reproduction of desirable 

 species by natural means, and we know very little about the 

 economic possibilities of establishing forests by artificial methods. 

 We are, however, beginning to know something about the 

 research methods that may be expected to yield results, and the 

 work we have been able to do so far, and the enthusiastic 

 co-operation of lumbermen, pulp and paper makers, private 

 foresters and provincial foresters, encourages us to proceed. 



