200 North American Forests and Forestry 



been introduced which promises to bear good re- 

 sults, but which is made possible by the different 

 policy pursued by our northern neighbors with 

 regard to their public lands. In the province of 

 Ontario, where the most valuable forests of Canada 

 are found, the pine lands belonging to the crown are 

 not sold, as they are in the States, but lumbermen 

 are given the privilege of cutting the merchant- 

 able timber under the supervision of government 

 officials. They are bound by their contracts, among 

 other things, to employ guards on the lands turned 

 over to them, and to take various other precautions 

 against fire. 



A provision which has been enacted by law in 

 some States, and which some lumbermen follow vol- 

 untarily, is to burn up, under proper precautions, the 

 debris left on the ground after felling. It is uni- 

 versally admitted that these piles of tree tops and 

 branches, lying loosely and quickly drying, are 

 among the most dangerous places in the woods. 

 Not a few destructive fires are traced to them annu- 

 ally. It has been demonstrated that the expense of 

 properly burning these remnants is so low that even 

 where the margin of profit is very small, a lumber- 

 man can well afford to take this precaution, and any 

 failure to do so must be ascribed to wanton disre- 

 gard of the rights of others. 



The various laws designed to lessen the dan- 

 ger of forest fires, and which we have briefly out- 

 lined above, cannot fail, if faithfully enforced, to 

 do considerable good. But under our form of 



