Directors' Report. 



41 



co-operation in fire fighting seems likely to 

 be widely extended. The Province of Que- 

 bec made a beginning in the work of plant- 

 ing up denuded sand lands. 



Private efforts in regard to forest pro- 

 tection were on a larger scale than ever 

 before. The Canadian Pacific Railway 

 transformed all its locomotives between 

 Field and Kamloops from coal burners to 

 oil burners, and besides a great deal of in- 

 vestigating, nursery and planting work to- 

 ward the close of the year, offered prizes 

 aggregating $2,400 to farmers for the best 

 plantations in 1914. A number of timber 

 limit holders, particularly in Quebec, have 

 erected telephone lines and cut trails to pro- 

 tect their holdings. 



In addition to these improvements the sea- 

 son, being exceedingly wet, was an excellent 

 one for forest protection, so that there were 

 few serious fires. 



One of the things for which the Asso- 

 ciation has pressed, a federal laboratory 

 where the different woods of Canada might 

 be thoroughly tested and studies made in 

 preservation and utilization, has not yet 

 been secured. The usefulness of such a 

 laboratory is beyond question and it is hop- 

 ed that its establishment may be chronicled 

 before the lapse of another year. 



Forestry educational work has proceeded 

 steadily during the year, and quite a body 

 of trained foresters, graduates of forest 

 schools, is now to be found in Canada. 

 Forestry is beginning to be recognized as a 

 profession. Another part of' the field of 

 education has not yet been touched, namely 

 that of training the rank and file of the 

 forest protective army, the forest rangers, 

 for their duties. This training is for men 

 already in the employ of the forest services 

 who have passed tests as to their ability 

 and exj)erience. While every effort should 

 he made to admit only fit men to 

 the services it is felt that these would 

 all be immensely more efficient if they 

 'ould be given a few weeks' training 

 under men who know the best methods of 

 {>rotefting timber, avoiding waste in utiliza- 

 tion, fighting fires, etc., and who have the 

 faculty of imparting this knowledge to 

 others. Ranger schools have proved very 

 efficacious in other countries in increasing 

 the efficiency of the men, and in showing 

 them how to do the work to the greatest 

 advantage. They have thus developed an 

 o-prit de corps in the force which has done 

 much for the whole ffervice, and to rlevelop 

 the idea of forest conservation among the 

 y»eople. One of the next things for which 

 it is felt the Association s'hould press is for 

 the establiyhment of ranger schools in con- 

 nection with the federal and provincial for- 

 est }>er vices. 



While the circle ot directors and officers 

 of the Association has not been broken by 



death during the year, yet fhe Canadian 

 Forestry Association and the cause of forest 

 conservation have lost warm friends through 

 the death of Sir Edward Clouston, Vice- 

 President of the Bank of Montreal ; Senator 

 Rolland, Mr. R. W. Shepherd of Montreal, 

 Mr. Otis Staples of British Columbia, and 

 Mr. H. F. McLachlin of Arnprior. 



On the way back from the Victoria Con- 

 vention the Secretary delivered a number of 

 lectures, but this work and the work of is- 

 suing bulletins to the newspapers for re- 

 production in their columns has been less 

 than in the year before owing to the great 

 amount of time which had to be spent on 

 these Conventions. Towards the end of the 



By (lint of imicli porscvcijuict' Kcv. ('. liord, a 

 ininistcr in Peterboro Co., Ont., has cultivated the 

 friendship of some of the wild creatures of his 

 neighlictrhood. In the illustration he has in his 

 nands one of his wild friends, a chipmunk. — Farm 

 and Dairy. 



year, however, the work of supplying ma- 

 terial for the newspapers was taken up 

 again, and in the coming year it is expected 

 that it will be made one of the leading 

 features of the work. The newspapers 

 throughout Canada have expressed a will- 

 ingnesH to make known to the public what 

 is being done to further conservation and 

 what is desired by the Association. 



A meeting of the Directors was held on 

 Dec. to present to the Dominion Govern- 

 ment those resolutions which related to fed- 

 eral forestry work. In the absence of the 

 President and Vice-President, Mr. G. Y. 

 Chown, Past President, headed the deputa- 



