102 



Canadian Forestry Journal^ July, 1913. 



P^r the enforcement of the balance 

 of the Order and the inspection of 

 the work of the railway companies, 

 a co-operative plan has been develop- 

 ed whereby certain officials of the 

 Dominion Forestry and Parks 

 Branches, and of the Governments of 

 British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec 

 and New Brunswick have been ap- 

 pointed officers of the Fire Inspection 

 Department of the Board, with au- 

 thority to deal direct with the rail- 

 way companies and to vary the re- 

 quirements up or down as the local 

 conditions at any time or place may 

 require or permit. It is expected that 

 a similar arrangement will be made 

 in Nova Scotia. In this way, a per- 

 fectly elastic system of administra- 

 tion is provided, so that necessary 

 protection is assured at a minimum 

 of cost to the railway companies and 

 with a minimum of red tape and loss 

 of time. 



A special point is made of reliev- 

 ing railway companies of the neces- 

 sity for special patrols when weather 

 conditions are such that special 

 patrol is not necessary. This is like- 

 ly to be the case in the early summer 

 while vegetation is in a green and 

 non-combustible condition. 



The gradual decrease of fire danger 

 may be expected to take place 

 through the extension of the use of 

 oil fuel on locomotives. The use of 

 oil-burners has for over two years 

 been in effect on 115 miles of the 

 line of the Great Northern Railway 

 in British Columbia. Along the main 

 and branch lines of the Canadian Pa- 

 cific Railway in British Columbia oil- 

 burners have during the past season 

 been installed on approximately 838 

 miles. Similar action has been taken 

 with regard to the 134 miles of the 

 Esquimau and Nanaimo Raliway on 

 Vancouver Island. The present to- 

 tal of oil-burning passenger lines in 

 Canada is therefore at the present 

 time approximately 587 miles. So 

 far, the use of oil fuel has been con- 

 fined to British Columbia on account 

 of the cheap water transportation 



from the extensive oil fields of South- 

 ern California. It is however ex- 

 pected that the use of oil will be 

 further extended ift British Columbia 

 and probably al^ into some portions 

 of Alberta. 



There are two points which should 

 be emphasized in connection with the 

 question of railway fire protection in 

 Canada. These are the requirement 

 of special patrols by the railway 

 companies, and the establishment of 

 a field organization for the adminis- 

 tration of the Order, with full au- 

 thority in the hands of the local in- 

 spectors to take any necessary action 

 without delay. 



During the portions of two seasons 

 the plan has been in effect, fire pro- 

 tection has been more efficient along 

 railway lines than ever before, and 

 it is confidently expected that still 

 more satisfactory results will be 

 secured in the future. One of 4he 

 most satisfactory and most encourag- 

 ing features of the situation has been 

 the fine degree of co-operation with 

 the Fire Inspection Department of 

 the Board that has existed on the 

 part of most of the railway officials 

 concerned. 



SECURING THE SETTLERS' SYM- 

 PATHY IN FOREST FIRE 

 PROTECTION. 



On the Dominion Forest Reserves, many 

 of which are more or less surrounded by 

 settled regions, the fires which most men- 

 ace these Reserves are those which have 

 escaped the control of the settlers in clear- 

 ing land, many of whom underestimate 

 the fire danger, or do not realize the im- 

 mense damage (ione by a prairie fire which 

 sweeps into the forest and destroys all 

 the timber in the vicinity. 



Consequently, to emphasize the import- 

 ance of this danger and to secure the set- 

 tlers' co-operation in eliminating it, has 

 been one of the chief aims of the Dominion 

 Forest Service. The accompanying cuts 

 illustrate one of the most successful ways 

 of achieving this result. These 'fire-post- 

 ers' as they are called, are printed in a 

 ilozen different languages so that no immi- 

 grant, whatever his nationality, can plead 

 ignorance of the fire danger. The old 



