8o 



Canadian Forestry Journal. 



TAXING TREE PLANTING. 



Winnipeg Free Press. 



It has well been said that he who does 

 his part in awakening, stimulating, and 

 niaintaing- public interest in tree-planting 

 is worthy of honor as a patriot. Here 

 in Western Canada, as in the States across 

 the boundary, tree-planting is of vital im- 

 portance to the country's welfare and pro- 

 gress. In recognition of this the Fores- 

 try Branch of the Department of the In- 

 terior was established, for the promotion 

 of tree-planting on the prairies, as well 

 as for the increase and conservation of 

 the forest wealth of the Dominion gener- 

 ally. Young trees are furnished by the 

 Dominion Government to individual own- 

 ers of land, and expert advice also and 

 superintendence in connection with the 

 planting of them and the care of them. 

 The Government is also doing a great 

 amount of tree-planting itself. The pur- 

 pose of Arbor Day is to inqjress upon the 

 public attention the importance of tree- 

 planting. 



It might be expected that the railway 

 companies, which have reaped, and are 

 reaping, such abundant wealth from 

 Western Canada, would, as a matter of 

 self-interest, to say nothing of public 

 spirit, co-operate in the encouragement of 

 tree-planting on the prairies. Everything 

 that helps to further the development of 

 this country means more money for the 

 railways. But they do not let consider- 

 ations of that sort interfere with the op- 

 eration of the principle of 'all that the 

 traffic will bear.' They believe in putting 

 that principle into complete operation in 

 the present, right now, and of doing it 

 up to the hilt. 



In one of the early articles in the pre- 

 sent Free Press series on freight rates, 

 comparisons were placed before the pub- 

 lic, showing the rates on trees, shrubbery, 

 and nursery stock in this country and in 

 the adjoining States, for corresponding 

 mileages. The comparisons covered West- 

 ern Canada and the adjoining States, 

 both for carload lots and for less than 

 carload lots; the rates on this side of the 

 boundary running from twice to nearly 

 three times the rates across the line. 



From St. Paul to Crookston, for ex- 

 ample, a distance of 300 miles, the car- 

 load rate (16.000 lbs. actual weight) is 

 $33,60, as against $76.00 from Winnipeg 

 to Wolseley, a distance of 296 miles; and 

 from St. Paul to Neche, a distance of 401 

 miles, the less than carload rate on nur- 

 sery stock in boxes is 24c. per 100 lbs., 

 while from Winnipeg to Moose Jaw, 400 

 miles, it is 67c. It is not necessary to 

 set forth further figures here. The view 

 taken by the railway traffic officials in 

 this country is that trees for planting 

 and other nursery stock are simply freight 



on which to levy 'all that the traffic will 

 bear.' 



A CANADIAN FOREST RANGER, 



Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. 



It has always been difficult to under- 

 stand the difference in mental attitude 

 toward the restraints of the law that ex- 

 ists between the American and the man 

 who lives just north of him, across the 

 Canadian line. In that country it is not 

 considered a hardship to paj^ either rever- 

 ence to Xature or a tribute to those in 

 whose charge lies the protection of Na- 

 ture and natural resources. A thousand 

 miles north of the British line one has 

 seen a fire guardian, the only officer of his 

 kind in a section of country hundreds of 

 miles in extent. A splendid, quiet, self- 

 respecting chap this man was, too; one 

 whose word was law and accepted as such 

 unhesitatingly by red and white. Part of 

 this man 's duty was the posting of fire 

 notices, each of which had a good, stiff 

 penalty attached, in all the places where 

 human beings, red or white, were apt to 

 see them — steamer landings, fur posts, 

 traders' stores. Nor did this man dread 

 the red men so much as he did the new- 

 comers of the white race, always more 

 careless about fires than were the abori- 

 gines. 



One day during a steamer voyage this 

 fire guardian saw smoke rising on the 

 horizon far inland from the river on which 

 we were travelling. He stopped the boat 

 at once, got- his pack together and went 

 ashore. As he figured it out, this fire was 

 forty miles away, probably at the edge 

 of a certain large prairie surrounded by 

 heavy woods. He would reach it in the 

 afternoon of the second day on foot. He 

 would carry most of his camp kit on his 

 back until that night; then would cache 

 some of it, and would leave yet more of 

 it midday of the next day, cached against 

 his return to the river, where he could 

 get supplies or find the trail in and out 

 of the country. He did not know who 

 had started the fire or what shape the fire 

 itself would have by the time he got to 

 it. All alone, a sturdy and self-reliant 

 figure^representing the law, representing 

 civilization even in the wilderness, re- 

 presenting a decent regard of organized 

 society for the organized society that is 

 to follow us— he set out on foot for his 

 wilderness journey across an untracked 

 country. In all of one's experience with 

 outdoor men, rarely has one met a better, 

 simpler and nobler figure than this one. 

 His profession is precisely that of our own 

 forest rangers. We ought to back these 

 men precisely as an older Government 

 backs its young men in an older wilder- 

 ness than ours. 



