Forests and SnowsUdes, 



71 



only redeeming feature of a forest fire from 

 a mining point of view is that it clears 

 away the brush and timber and thus gives 

 greater opportunity for the prospector to 

 search for and follow up exposed veins of 

 mineral. Otherwise the forest fire apparent- 

 ly misses any law of compensaton. It is a 

 dead loss in every way, doing no good to 

 anyone and very great harm. The sight, 

 too, of a grand old tree that after perhaps 

 a century has reached its maturity stand- 

 ing a blackened ruin of stump some six or 

 eight feet in diameter — and simply because 

 John Smith forgot to put out his campfire 

 before leaving for parts unknown — is a 

 sorry sight indeed. 



*I noticed last spring that the mountain 

 opposite us was gradually becoming clothed 

 with a low brush of young trees. But how 

 many /-years will it take to restore that 

 mountain-side to its former forest glory? 

 and how many years will it require to pro- 

 duce a tree comparable in girth and height 

 to those grand old cedars whose huge black- 

 ened and charred stumps are crowded along 

 the road?' 



EASTERN FORESTERS. 



What University of New Brunswick 

 Men are Doing. 



Mr. R. B. Miller, Professor of For- 

 estry in the University of New 

 Brunswick, writes in reply to a letter 

 of the editor of The Canadian For- 

 estry Journal that the work of the 

 academic year has concluded most sat- 

 isfactorily and that the prospects are 

 very bright. He encloses the follow- 

 ing from one of the daily papers of 

 Fredericton : — 



The foresters in the University of New 

 Brunswick are getting positions for the 

 summer and it is hoped the majority will 

 be placed before Encaenia or shortly after- 

 wards at least. Of the seniors, K. R. Ma- 

 chum takes a posiAon with the C. P. R. 

 Forestry Branch, and.H. B. Murray is the 

 only man to go to British Columbia under 

 H. B. MacMillan, Chief Forester. B. K. 

 Shives will go to Prince Albert, Saskatche- 

 wan, and in his party as assistant will be 

 H. S. Laughlin, of the junior class. G. P. 

 Melrose of the same class is also with the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch as well as A. 

 M. Gunter and Don A. McDonald. The 

 two latter will be assigned to the Domin- 

 ion Experimental Farm where they will 

 make studies of growth in the arboretum. 



Jack Hipwell, Harry Holman, Frank Mc- 

 Gibbon and Cortland Otty, the latter an 

 engineer with some forestry experience, 

 have received positions with the C. P. B. 



Forestry Branch, at Calgary, Alberta. All 

 of these are sophmores. C. L. Armstrong 

 and C. R. Townsend of the freshmen have 

 been placed, as well as Sam Weston, '14, 

 with Mr. Reginald R. Bailey, Plaster Rock 

 and will be on the Tobique with Foster 

 Howe and H. C. Belyea, U» N. B. men en- 

 gaged in cruising for the New Brunswick 

 Land Co. On account of other men get- 

 ting ready for examinations, five U. N. B. 

 men, some of them foresters, were sent to 

 Nova Scotia for the C. P. R. K. Vavasour, 

 R. D. Jago, A. M. Brewer, Guy Horncastle, 

 and C. E. Maimann, left here April 15th. 

 The Forestry Department at the U.N.B. 

 is steadily growing in popularity and the 

 usefulness of this science is becoming more 

 generally recognized. The number of 

 students in forestry it is expected will be 

 largely increased next year. 



HOW TO PREVENT FLOODS. 



The floods which swept through the 

 middle western states were more de- 

 structive this year than ever before. 

 Not even the awful Johnstown flood 

 can be said to parallel in loss of life 

 and property the terrible disasters 

 which recently took place. The New 

 York 'Outlook' in 'A Poll of the 

 Press' on the subject of flood preven- 

 tion in the light of recent experiences 

 returns a verdict which should make 

 forest conservationists more zealous 

 than ever for their cause. The 'Out- 

 look' gives first place to the opinion 

 expressed by the Buffalo 'News.' 



Nothing is more familiar in the experi- 

 ence of mankind than that cutting down 

 the forests to an unreasonable extent in- 

 variably leads to floods and to erosion of 

 soil, and, generally speaking, to enormous 

 damage to farming country as well as to 

 cities and villages that lie in the path of 

 streams. 



Hardly any other lesson in our human 

 experience is more deeply and bitterly 

 written than that of the folly of neglect 

 to preserve a certain proportion of forest 

 lands with a view to security of inhabi- 

 tants. 



Some marvel that in the generations 

 past, say in the early days of the settle- 

 ment of the Central West, as well as of the 

 eastern part of the United States, there 

 were no such disastrous floods as we have 

 to-day, but it is all accounted for by 

 having the land so cleared that as soon as 

 rain falls or snow melts -it immediately 

 goes down grade with the utmost speed 

 into creeks and rivers and begins its work 

 of doHtruction. 



