190 



Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1913 



the Dominion Government establish fire 

 protection service on the Intercolonial and 

 National Transcontinental Kailways; that 

 the Governments of New Brunswick and 

 Nova Scotia be urged to form forest fire 

 protection services; that brush disposal be 

 carefully considered by all forest owning 

 governments; that co-operative fire protec- 

 tive associations be approved; that Do- 

 minion and Provincial Governments be 

 urged to make a systematic study of the 

 extent and character fo the forest re- 

 sources within their bounds, etc. 



The remainder of the report is taken up 

 with three appendices. These embrace a 

 study of the extension of the Dominion 

 Government Forest Reserves and the re- 

 port of Mr. J. H. White on the district 

 lying between Sudbury and Port Arthur. 

 The general summary of this report is that 

 the whole of the area between Mattawa 

 and Nipigon and south of the Clay Belt 

 should be made a forest reserve. Opinions 

 on oil fuel given by railway men, forest- 

 ers, and mechanical experts conclude the 

 report which is well prepared and provided 

 with a copious index which renders all 

 parts readily available. 



BEUSH DISPOSAL IN NEW BRUNS- 

 WICK. 



Views of the Deputy Minister of Lands 

 and Forests. 



Lt.-Col. T. G. Loggie, Deputy Minister 

 of Lands and Forests for New Brunswick, 

 writes in the current issue of the Canada 

 Lumberman : 



I have read Mr. Allen 's able articles in 

 your two editions of October 1st and 15th 

 and quite agree with all he says regarding 

 waste in logging operations. To get the 

 top out of the woods is something many 

 of us have been striving after, for a great 

 number of years. The Timber Regulations 

 of this Department for some time have 

 contained a provision that all logs must 

 be taken out up to 5 inches in diameter, 

 and, while I do not claim that it is wholly 

 carried out in practice, our lumber oper- 

 ators are gradually seeing that an era has 

 arrived when less wasteful methods must 

 be followed to get the true value from our 

 forests. 



Mr. Allen in his two articles has not 

 touched upon the more important aspect 

 in the removal of the tops, viz., the lessen- 

 ing of the fire danger. I am quite con- 

 vinced that, if the land owner were to al- 

 low the operator to remove these tops with- 

 out stumpage cost, with a further provi- 

 sion that the crowns of the trees should 

 have their under branches lopped off, it 

 would, to a large, extent, minimize the fire 

 danger, and be a tremendous advantage to 

 our forests. 



I also quite agree with what Mr. Allen 

 says about more forest supervision in the 

 actual work of lumbering. These matters 

 have been repeatedly advocated at meet- 

 ings of the Canadian Forestry Association 

 and the time is assuredly coming when . 

 wasteful methods such as he speaks of will 

 be, to a large extent, if not altogether, 

 eliminated from forest operations. 



I will say for Mr. Allen's information 

 that I have leased some lands of my own 

 for a considerable spruce operation which 

 required the log-getter, not only to pay the 

 same stumpage for the tops as for the mer- 

 chantable, but to remove everything up 

 to five inches and to underlop all the 

 crowns. All trees are sawn down at the 

 swell of the roots and sawn up into 

 lengths. I have placed competent over- 

 seers to see that the conditions are carried 

 out and I expect to have good results. Ten 

 years ago I would have been laughed at, 

 were I to have exacted these conditions. 



I am sorry I cannot agree with Mr. Allen 

 in his statement that after virgin growth 

 is cut away, quite as good never follows. 

 This statement is something new to us, and 

 upsets the principles of nature. If one 

 were to follow this reasoning, as well 

 might he say that when you break up labd 

 and sow it to wheat, you will never have 

 so good a crop as the first one. My theory 

 is in lumbering: remove the merchantable 

 log at maturity; let in the air and light, 

 and the same process will rotate, resulting 

 in a bountiful nature supplying as good a 

 log as the virgin one that was cut away. 



DAMS VERSUS FORESTS. 



The waterworks commissioners of the 

 city of Brantford, Ontario, have instructed 

 the city engineer to prepare plans for a 

 dyke to protect the waterworks property 

 and the lowlying lands between the canal 

 and the river. The city of Brantford has 

 been building dams for twenty years to 

 protect its lower parts from the floods 

 of the Grand River. Mr. Thomas South- 

 worth, when Clerk of Forestry for the 

 Province of Ontario, was consulted on this 

 matter and told the people of the lower 

 Grand River Valley that they had begun 

 at the wrong end, and that, instead of 

 building dams at Brantford and Gait, they 

 should have kept trees on the hillsides of 

 the upper waters of the river. This, is also 

 the conclusion of Mr. W. H. Breithaupt 

 C.E. in his paper read at the Victoria 

 Convention, wherein he pointed out that 

 the forest at the headwaters of the Grand 

 River which regulated its flow, had been 

 ruthlessly cut off to make farms, with the 

 result that floods now occurred nearly 

 every spring, while on the other hand this 

 particular land was, much of it, not even 

 third rate farming land. 



