Reforestation in Manitoba. 



»4$ 



and Shilo, on the Canadian North- 

 em Railway. These nurseries have 

 been put in charge of Mr. J. D. 

 Kirkwood, who is a native of Scot- 

 land and had seven years' experi- 

 ence in forestry work in Scotland, 

 Knpland and Ireland. lie has had 

 char^'e of the nurseries for some 

 months, after having? spent some 

 time at the Indian Head nurseries of 

 the Forestry Branch in order to 

 familiarize himself with conditions 

 in the prairie i)rovinces. 



In the planting operations white 

 spruce and jack pine will be used 

 for the most part, and bull pine, 

 lodgepole pine, black spruce, Nor- 

 way spruce and Douglas fir will also 

 te experimented with. 



A detailed plan of planting is be- 

 ing arranged and further announce- 

 ment will shortly be made. 



It is somewhat hard to predict 

 just what the rate of growth on this 

 reserve is likely to be, as no system- 

 atic measurement of the growth has 

 been made. On the sandy soil of 

 the Pines Forest Reserve near 

 Prince All)ert, Sask., white spruce, 

 under unfavorable conditions of soil, 

 moisture supply, etc., attains a 

 diameter of 10.2 inches in seventy 

 years and it is entirely safe to as- 

 sume a growth of that amount for 

 spruce on the Spruce Woods Re- 

 serve where conditions for the 

 growth of spruce are favorable as 

 shown by the fact that spruce is 

 practically the only tree that grows 

 on the reserve. 



The risk of fire may be minimized 

 (in fact, practically eliminated) al- 

 most without expense if the ar- 

 rangement of the planted area is 

 studied at the beginning, roads pro- 

 vided, etc. 



A spruce tree ten inches in diam- 

 eter can be depended upon to give 

 fifty feet, board measure, of lumber. 

 Calculated at two hundred trees per 

 acre — a low rate — there will thus be 

 in seventy years at a very conserva- 

 tive estimate ten thousand feet of 



timber per acre on the reserve. Even 

 now, the timber will sell at $6 on 

 the stump, so that at the end of 

 seventy years the value of timber 

 per acre on the stump will be $60, a 

 total for the reserve of $8,640,000. 



Since the above was written it has 

 come to the knowledge of the Jouknal 

 that efforts are being made by the 

 Militia Department to obtain the 

 western part of the reserve as a 

 camping ground. This is the larger 

 part of the reserve and that which, 

 since the institution of the reserve 

 in 1895, has been held by the De- 

 partment of the Interior as a forest 

 reserve. It is that, too, in which ex- 

 periments up to the present have 

 been made. Needless to say, the in- 

 stitution of a camping ground on 

 the territory would bar all further 

 attempts at growing trees thereon. 

 It must be the hope of everyone who 

 has at heart the welfare of forests 

 in Canada that the eflforta of the 

 Militia Department may not be snc- 

 cessful. 



Senator Smith, of Maryland, a lumber- 

 man of many years' experience, and a 

 member of the National Forest BesenrmtioB 

 Commission, ha.s introduced in Congress a 

 bill providing for the appropriation of 

 $500,000 annually to acquire landn along 

 the Potomac river adjacent to Washing- 

 ton, for a national park and forestry pur- 

 ]K>ses. The provisions of the bill in re- 

 gard to the acquirement of the land and 

 other legal phages are similar to tho!% of 

 the Weeks' bill. Five per cent, of the 

 receipts from timber sales are to be paid 

 to the States in which the forest may be 

 located. 



Press reports indicate that serious insect 

 devastations are occurring in the spruce 

 forests of Maine, the damage being caoe- 

 cd by the sawfly, which destroyed meet 

 of the tamarack in Maine in the early 

 80's, It is reported that the present oat- 

 break is confined to spruce, and for this 

 reason it was not l>eHovod that the insect 

 could l>e the sawfly. The State Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, however, has identi- 

 fied the insect as the sawfly, claiming that 

 the damage is due to slits made in the 

 smaller twigs by the female insect in pre- 

 paring a place to deposit her eggs. 



