Slash Disposal 



171 



The great question of fire protection was 

 the first one to be met and that had practi- 

 cally been settled in the Province of Quebec 

 by the formation of the pioneer co-operative 

 society, the St. Maurice Valley Forest 

 Protective Association, and the broad- 

 minded and helpful attitude of the Minister 

 of Crown Lands, Hon. Jules AJlard, and his 

 Chief of Fire Protective Service Mr. W. C. J. 

 Hall. This Association had charge of over 

 seven million acres and had two successful 

 years behind it. 



Canada was well placed in regard to care 

 of her forests. These for the most part were 

 still Crown Lands, the right to cut the timber 

 being licensed to companies and individuals, 

 and the cutting carried on under the super- 

 vision of the government. The immensity of 

 the territory, the lack of trained men and 

 the difficulty of dealing with settlers had 

 hampered the work. A new era was dawning, 

 however, and the Dominion Forest Service 

 and those of the provinces of Quebec and 

 British Columbia were doing splendid service. 

 It was hoped there would be no backward 

 steps and that the government would take 

 the lead in conserving the forests and look- 

 ing after fire protection. At present in 

 Quebec the licensee paid not only the annual 

 rental and stumpage dues, but bore all the 

 expense of fire protection, stock taking and 

 measurement. 



Another interesting question was the 

 amount of growth after lumbering. It had 

 been found over large areas that the average 

 cut per acre counting all territory good and 

 bad was about 3 cords or 6M f aet b.m. per acre. 

 The government regulations did not allow 

 the cutting of any trees under certain diameter 

 limits. The result was the smaller trees had 

 been left under the supposition that they 

 would supply the seed necessarj' for natural 

 regeneration. But measurements in many 

 different sections showed that not enough 

 timber was coming on to make a second 

 trip into this cut-over section profitable. 

 A second cut would amount to only one, or 

 at the very most two cords per acre after 

 thirty or thirty-five years, so that from the 

 standpoint of the future crop the diameter 

 limit and natural reproduction were not 

 efficient. Another drawback was that 

 under this sytem only soft woods which 

 could be floated were taken out, leaving the 

 large harwoods which were really weeds, 

 to grow and propagate. For this reason 

 planting was a necessity and should be 

 begun at once. Mr. Wilson concluded, 

 I think that the only methmi of perpetuating 

 a sufficient supply of timber, and I agree 

 with Dr. Femow that the government is the 

 agency which should take it up'. 



SLASH DISPOSAL. 



At the Winnipeg Convention the 

 question of slash disposal was keen- 



ly debated. Mr. W. R. Turnbull of 

 fvotliesay, N.B., an old and enthusi- 

 astic member of the Association was 

 prevented from attending at Winni- 

 peg, but felt so strongly on this sub- 

 ject that he sent the subjoined letter 

 giving his views: — 



According to a recent bulletin of the 

 Canadian Forestry Association 'Canadians 

 are cutting timber each year at the rate 

 of about 100 board feet per acre/ 'The 

 fire loss is estimated to be 950 board feet 

 per acre per annum.' In other words 

 nearly ten times as much timber is de- 

 stroyed by fire as accrues to the benefit 

 of the country. 



I have been in the New Brunswick 

 woods a good deal and I believe this 

 enormous loss can be prevented in just one 

 way and that is by compelling the lum- 

 bermen by law to burn the tops and all 

 the branches of every tree that is cut 

 down, and at the time the tree is cut down. 

 The practical lumberman will doubtless 

 object to this, saying that the green 

 branches will not readily burn, and that it 

 would cost too much money to employ men 

 to do this work. 



In the first place the green branches and 

 tops will burn, provided a large fire of dry 

 wood is first started, and the green branch- 

 es gradually fed on the fire and kept well 

 packed down by attendants that under- 

 stand the proper methods. In the second 

 place it would cost money, no doubt, but 

 the lumberman could be compelled by law 

 to expend this money and the resulting 

 saving would accrue not only to the coun- 

 try as a whole, but eventually to the 

 lumberman himself. 



I would propose that at every lumber 

 camp in Canada, a government employee 

 be stationed, during the cutting months, 

 to see that the law of burning tops and 

 branches at once, be carried out. Or 

 what would suffice as well, and be less 

 costly to the Government, would be travel- 

 ling inspectors who could possibly visit 

 twcnity or thirty camps in a given district 

 and report at once the negligence of any 

 lunihcrnian who had not destroyed his tops 

 and branches — the negligent lumberman to 

 l)ay a heavy fine, many times the cost of 

 doing the work of burning. 



If such a law was made and enforced 

 large forest fires would soon be things of 

 the past. In woods that have been cleaned 

 of «icad wood and old cuttings, and con- 

 tain little but living green trees it is 

 almost impossible to start a fire in any 

 month of the year, and the country would 

 lose little by hunters and careless campers 

 if tlie lumberman were compelled to do his 

 duty by the country and by himself. 



