1^8 



Canadian Poresiry Journat, December, l^lS 



ering all other lines in Briitsh Columbia. 

 These bodies and the Department of Lands 

 and Forests for Ontario provided inspec- 

 tors for all the railway lines from Lake 

 Superior to the Pacific Ocean. 



Forest Fires and Brush Disposal. 



Part IL deals with settlers' slash and 

 lumbering slash. It is recommended in re- 

 gard to the former that the time of burn- 

 ing be fixed and that there be a sufficiently- 

 large force of rangers to see that the law 

 is carried out. Regarding lumbering slash 

 it is stated that while patrols and other 

 measures would continue to be necessary 

 the root of the problem could best be 

 reached through disposal of the slash. In 

 the case of unleased lands held by Domin- 

 ion and Provincial Governments. Mr. 

 Leavitt holds no trouble should ensue, 

 since when new areas were leased the new 

 requirements in regard to brush disposal 

 would be taken into consideration by the 

 lumbermen in bidding on the limit. In the 

 case of renewal of licenses, while not so 

 easy, still the growing value of the stump- 

 age and the need of protecting the hold- 

 ings were all factors in making the new 

 price. 



Then follows a review of methods in 

 the Adirondacks, in the United States Na- 

 tional forests in Idaho, Montana and Min- 

 nesota, in Oregon and Washington, and in 

 Minnesota State forests. The general trend 

 of this review is to show that everywhere 

 there was a growing recognition that brush 

 must be disposed of and that there is a 

 disposition to try different methods and 

 to adopt those best suited to each condi- 

 tion and locality. 



Top-Lopping in the Adirondacks. 

 Part III. continues this brush disposal 

 problem by discussing top-lopping in the 

 Adirondacks. It is se. out that in 1908 

 very severe fires swept the Adirondacks 

 and as a result a conference of lumber- 

 men and the State Forestry Commission 

 decided that the best way to check these 

 fires was to lop the tops, of all coniferous 

 trees cut for commercial purposes. This 

 was crystallized into law in 1909 and since 

 that the fire loss had been greatly reduced. 

 Owing to fewer losses and the feeling that 

 the financial burden was too great lumber- 

 men protested in 1912 against the contin- 

 uance of the practice. A series of field 

 investigations was held to reconsider the 

 question. Mr. Leavitt attended these for 

 the Commision of Conservation and Mr. T. 

 W. Dwight, Assistant Director, for the Do- 

 minion Forestry Branch. The matter was 

 fully gone into and as a result it was de- 

 cided that where brush burning was prac- 

 ticable this was the most efficient method 

 of slash disposal; where it was not prac- 

 tical the lopping of tops might be advis- 

 able. The beneficial effects of top-lopping 

 it was held outweighed the disadvantages 



due to any possible injury to soil, repro- 

 duction or old growth. Lopping to only a 

 three inch diameter materially reduced the 

 cost. Since the preparation of this report 

 the New York Legislature had changed the 

 law so as to make compulsory only lopping 

 to down to three inches in diameter. 



Oil as Locomtive Fuel. 

 Part IV. deals with the use of oil as 

 locomotive fuel. Mr. Leavitt states that 

 in 1912 oil was used wholly as fuel on 

 20,910 miles of railway in the United 

 States and 587 miles in Canada; and used 

 in conjunction with coal on 4,720 miles 

 additional in the United States. All the 

 railways using oil fuel in Canada were in 

 British Columbia; and were: Canadian Pa- 

 cific, 338 miles; Esquimalt ' and Nanaimo, 

 134; Great Northern, 115. As to effective- 

 ness it is stated that the use of oil practic- 

 ally eliminates all danger of forest fires 

 due to locomotive operation. The use of 

 oil was increasing on the west coast where 

 convenient supplies made it cheaper than 

 coal. 



Forest-Planting in Canada. 



Part V. takes up the subject of forest 

 planting. Investigations of the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch indicated that half of the 

 original forest of Canada had been destroy- 

 ed by fire. This timber would if cut have 

 yielded not less than a billion dollars to 

 the revenue of the country. There were 

 enormous areas of non-agricultural land in 

 Canada which however, were very suitable 

 for the growth of timber and should be 

 put to that use. 



The subject is then dealt with geo- 

 graphically from east to west. Mr. H. R. 

 Christie of the B. C. Forest Branch deals 

 with the situation in British Columbia and 

 comes to the following conclusions: I. For- 

 est planting in British Columbia is silvi- 

 culturally possible. Hardwoods may be 

 grown as well as soft woods. 2. Forest 

 regeneration in B. C. is financially practic- 

 able, and possibly also forest planting. 

 3. But forest planting is now, in general, 

 neither necessary nor the most profitable 

 way to spend time, energy or money in 

 British Columbia. 



The statement regarding tree planting in 

 Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba was 

 prepared by Mr. R. H. Campbell, Dominion 

 Director of Forestry. The work of farm 

 planting was begun in 1901 wiiu tne send- 

 ing out of 58,000 trees from the Experi- 

 mental Farms at Brandon and Indian 

 Head. In 1912 this output of trees from 

 the Forest Nursery Station had increased 

 to 2,729,135 trees to 3,618 farmers. The 

 total sent out to the end of the planting 

 season of 1912 was nearly 22,000,000 seed- 

 lings. These were planted for shelter belts 

 and wood lots and consisted chiefly of Man- 

 itoba maple, elm, ash, cottonwood willow 

 and Russian poplar. In 1911 distribution of 



