With the Forest Engineers^ 



{Contributed by the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers.) 



The plan inaugurated during the past 

 month by the Secretary for obtaining from 

 members news of their doings has met 

 with gratifying success. In response to 

 the letters addressed to members several 

 interesting replies have been received, 

 some of which are quoted in full below. 



Almost the first reply received was from 

 the President of the Society, which it is 

 only fitting should be given precedence. 

 Dr. Fernow's note is as follows: — 



Dr. Fernow has spent his vacation in 

 his summer home at Point Breeze, N. Y., 

 U.S.A., revising or re-writing, at least in 

 part, his Economics of Forestry, the book 

 having become thoroughly antiquated, 

 especially in its statistical data and in the 

 chapter on * The Forestry Movement in the 

 United States. ' In July he attended the 

 forestry conference in Sunapee, N. H., 

 U.S.A., and delivered an address on 'A 

 Plan Adequate to Meet Our Needs for 

 Wood and Timber,' in which he argued 

 that forest planting on a large scale, sys- 

 tematically, is alone capable of meeting 

 the future demands for timber in the 

 United States, and proposed a plan by 

 which twelve hundred million dollars were 

 to be spent in that direction during a cam- 

 paign of sixty years, or, as he expressed 

 it, *two Dreadnoughts a year.' Dr. Fer- 

 now is now (Aug. 13) on an excursion 

 to the West with the International Geo- 

 logical Congress. 



Quebec Forest Service. 



Avila Bedard, M.F., is back from 

 Europe. He has visited Great Britain, 

 France and Belgium. 



The Province of Quebec has now six- 

 teen forest engineers in the Forest Service. 

 Two (Piche and Bedard) from Yale and 

 the other fourteen are graduates of the 

 School of Forestry of Quebec. 



The Forest Service is devoting much at- 

 tention to the forest inventory. All the 

 parties in the field are covering different 

 strips, etc., so that a very good know- 

 ledge of the forest conditions will soon bo 

 obtained. ' 



The appropriation of the Forest Service 

 i« now $100,000 per annum, whereas it was 

 only $55,000 in 1909. It means that the 

 Gouin government is desirous to give all 

 the necessary funds to obtain a good and 

 progressive service. 



The revenues of the Department of 

 Lands and Forests for the fiscal year end- 



ing June 30th last will exceed $i,"50,000, 

 a substantial increase over the preceeding 

 years. Since 1908, every year has seen the 

 revenues increasing steadily. 



Advances in B. C. 

 H. K. MacMillan, Chief Forester of Brit- 

 ish Columbia, writes in part as follows: — 

 'Mr. Price is now with us and we are 

 working on general re-organization of our 

 work. One of the most important features 

 from a forestry standpoint is that regula- 

 tions for brush disposal, fire protection, 

 and reproduction of valuable species are 

 now being included in all Forest Branch 

 timber sales. One hundred and fourteen 

 timber sales are now under consideration, 

 aggregating a value of $460,000. Timber 

 is sold only for immediate cut. One hun- 

 dred and eighty-eight miles of telephone 

 line and 134 miles of trail for fire-pro- 

 teetive purposes are now under construc- 

 tion for the Forest Branch.' 



Fire Protection in Quebec. 



W. C. J. Hall, Superintendent of Fire 

 Protection for the Province of Quebec, 

 writes as follows: — 



'The fact of all railways in this pro- 

 vince, except the Intercolonial Railway 

 and the National Transcontinental Rail- 

 way, being controlled by the Dominion 

 Board of Railway Commissioners and the 

 Quebec Public Utilities Commission, and 

 by having been appointed by both bodies 

 as Provincial Fire Inspector renders my 

 duties particularly interesting. 



* I was surprised to see the readiness 

 with which the railways met the provi- 

 sions of Orders 16570 (now replaced by 

 Order 107) and 72, respectively, and 

 co-operated with the Inspector in Chief 

 for Canada, Mr. Leavitt and myself. I 

 had all the lines inspected for hazardous 

 sections and established special patrols 

 thereon, which I may say have been regu- 

 larly maintained. These special patrols 

 consist of motor-cars, velocipedes, and 

 track-walkers, according to the tastes of 

 the various railway superintendents. Fires 

 on or off the rights of way are reported 

 to me promptly, as a rule. I have a staff 

 of seven lnHi)ectors travelling over the 

 railways, not devoting the whole of their 

 time to this object, but a considerable 

 part of it. 



'Up to the time of writing we have had 

 no serious fire on any of the railways, ex- 



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