The Turtle Mountain Forest Reserve 



xtt 



patrol and access to a fire, they may 

 be used as starting points for back 

 firing, and will often check or Hctn- 

 ally Htop a small surface fire.' 



The coustnuition of telephone 

 liiirs from point to point within the 

 reserve is a measure of great im- 

 portance, primarily for the sake of 

 fire protection and also for tlw great 

 help it would afford in its general 

 administration. In th<> bulletin al- 

 ready referred to Mr. Graves writes: 

 'One of the great diffieulties in ex- 

 tensive forest districts is to seeurc 

 the neces.sary help in fighting fires. 

 The telephone is the greatest aid in 

 fire patrol. It enables the man who 

 discovers a fire to call for help and 

 to give directions as to the number 

 of men and the equipment needed. 

 By the use of the telephone on the 

 National Forests millions of dollars 

 have doubtless been saved. The 

 Forest Ser\'ice has since 1906 built 

 4,850 miles of telephone line and it 

 is extending the lines as rapidly as 

 Congress furnishes the funds for 

 the work.' 



To make all parts of the Turtle 

 Mountain reserve easily aecessible 

 by a system of roads would not be 

 an expensive matter. About 30 

 miles of new road would suffice, and 

 road-building within the reserve ean 

 be done at a cost of about $40 per 

 mile. 



The installation of a telephone 

 line is not so expensive a matter in 

 a forest as in a cleared country, 

 where poles must be provided, 

 transported and set up. It is estim- 

 ated that the telephone line can be 

 built for $40 per mile. Only about 

 30 miles would be neeessary. mak- 

 ing the cost for this item some $1,- 

 200. 



Benefits of the Reserve. 



At this monuuit the fuel (|uestion 

 has reached an acute stage tli rough- 

 out the prairie provinces, owing to 

 the labor diffieulties in the Alberta 

 coal mines. Consequently, the ad- 

 vantage of such a constant, depend- 

 able supply of fuel needs only to be 



mentioned to be eoDceded. It i« not 

 the first time in recent year»— ev^n 

 within the past five years — that the 

 same question hait come to the fore. 

 Is it worth nothing to the people of 

 this district to have at hand at all 

 times a plentiful supply of good 

 fuel to mitigate the rigors of a west- 

 em wintcrf The annual produc- 

 tion of fuel wood on this retterve 

 would give to every one of the 29,- 

 427 inhabitants of the electoral dis- 

 trict of Souris (according to the re- 

 turns of the census of 1906) nearly 

 two cords of wood per year. 



Out on the plains of Saskatche- 

 wan, in an entirely treeless land, 

 timber has to be freighted hundreds 

 of miles and the settler there can 

 readily appreciate (as who, indeed, 

 cannot?) the advantage of having a 

 supply of timber practically at his 

 door. Poplar is a poor timber, 

 someone may object. With the 

 growing scarcity of timber of all 

 kinds, however, species formerly re- 

 garded as inferior are coming more 

 and more into use, and many an On- 

 tario man who, twenty years ago, 

 would have nothing but the finest 

 white pine, will today accept with- 

 out question the erstwhile despised 

 hemlock. Moreover, if poplar will 

 n«)t fulfil the requirements entirely, 

 there are better kinds of timber 

 that can be grown on the reserve. 



The 55,000 cords of wood would, 

 at the low ratio of 300 board feet of 

 lumber per cord, amount to 16,500,- 

 000 feet of lumber per year. Now, 

 the average annual cut of lumber 

 per mill in Ontario in 1909 was 

 somewhat less than 1.600.000 feet, 

 so that the lumber thus produced 

 would keep busy ten saw mills of 

 the average size of those operating 

 in Ontario during that year. 



The question of the value of the 

 reserve as a summer resort has also 

 to be eonsidored. 



If Settled, What? 



If. on the other hand, the tract is 

 thrown open to settlement, what is 



