On fit no Should Rf forest. 



«5' 



the fact that at Nia^ura Fulls \v«« 

 jja\e a i)r»'S(>nt export to the TnitiMl 

 States of 1)1. 000 li.j)., and ajfreeinents 

 to allow the export of 200,0(K) h.p. 

 The time Ik eominj?, and perhaps it 

 is not HO far distant as some people 

 imagine, when we shall need all of 

 fills hy«lro-eleetrie power for our own 

 use. Will we then he able to seeiire 

 its rt'tiirn withojit comiin^rcial or 

 aetual warfare ? I am afraid not, 

 an<l it looks to me as if in this ease 

 we had, melaphorieally speaking, 

 parted with a larpe portion of the 

 people's heritaj?e for n tikss of 

 I)ottape. 



Before leaving this phase of the 

 suhjeet. it might be pertinent to 

 point out that a great mistake was 

 iiuule by the Ontario government 

 when, in 1887, they granted a chart- 

 er for the development of power at 

 Niagara Falls. Tlu'y should have 

 forced its development at Queens- 

 ton Heights or Jordan, where, on ac- 

 count of the extra fall, practically 

 double the amount of power can be 

 <leveloped from the same amount of 

 water as at Niagara Falls where it 

 is now developed. It is (piite possible 

 that in the perhaj)s distant future, 

 this power i^olicy will be forced up- 

 on the people of this province and 

 they will find it not only profitable 

 but necessary, to abandon the pres- 

 ent great hydro-electric enterprises 

 at the Falls and locate them where 

 nature evidently intended them to 

 be. 



What has been done at Niagara 

 Falls, private monopolists have also 

 been trying to repeat on the St. 

 Lawrence, as well as in Western On- 

 tario. It is true that these attempts 

 have temporarily failed, but our peo- 

 ple may rest assured that the Unit- 

 ed States capitalists who desire 

 possession of these great natural 

 monopolies have not given up the 

 fight, but that they will be heard 

 from again, and that in the near 

 future, although probably in a diff- 

 erent way. 



Timber in the Hudson Bay Diitriot. 



The following \ir«n buIietiD was rMwntlj 

 i'fu©<l by th«' i-orwtry Hranrh: — 'An inter- 

 view with an cnj^iuetT given rermtly in a 

 ^u•»t<*rn |>iii)rr to tho cfTrct that thvri* In 

 alitinilttiit titiitM*r on the line of the lluihon 

 Itity railnay w an illuftration of the niiii- 

 iipprehennon in regard to thi« matter that 

 I'lhtH in tho public mimi. Ilerau^e there 

 II' c !ar);o aroax of land in the north on 

 ^\hich there in timber of tome kind, the 

 londu^ion ii* rracheii that it if* ail of pre'ent 

 \alue and that the country hax an unlim- 

 ited KHpply. Ah a matter of fart, a rarefid 

 in>|)«<'tion of the timi>er along the line of 

 t)i<> Hudi-on Hay railway made in the yearn 



'IK and 15U1 by the 'Fore^try Hranch of 

 I If Department of the Interior, fhowi* that 

 tkere iit not enough mature timl>er along the 

 lino of that railway to build the road. 

 TI.ero are no prairie diftrirtJ* of any • 

 along the route. There arc trecn ever.\ 

 but, o". ing to re|)eatel firen, the fori-i i-, 

 except on the merert fraction of the area, 

 too Hmall for commercial purpo^cH and, un- 

 IcH8 it can be protected from fire until it 

 reaches maturity, will never be of any uw 

 to the country. Kxplorations in other parta 

 of the northern fore»tcd districts tell the 

 ^ame tale. Everywhere fire has worked 

 havoc, and the tore^t is a mere wreck of 

 what it might have been if fires could be 

 j>revented. Tnlcs adequate mea>ure!4 are 

 taken now to protect the young and imma- 

 ture forcFts, which form ...e major part of 

 the land, the outlook for the future is none 



too gOOtl. 



If the northern forests are to eontinne to 

 be a ])ermanent source of wealth to the 

 country, it is absolutely necessary that the 

 fire ranging sy^tem i^hould be extended and 

 that projier metho<ls of management of the 

 fofest ^hould be applied, and public educa- 

 tion to the value of the forest is even more 

 uecei^sary. 



Sweden, which has large tracts of north- 

 orn forest, practically uninhabited, similar to 

 tho:e in northern Canada, has about climin- 

 ate<l the fire danger in such districts main- 

 ly by eilucating her {teople to the value of 

 the forests.' 



It is interesting to note that the report 

 of the Director of the Geological Survey in 

 regard to the countrv along the proposed 

 route of the Ihubon Hay Railway, traversed 

 last year by the then Governor General, Earl 

 Grey, and his party, confirms this view of 

 the forests of the region. In addition to 

 the extract from this rei>ort given ebewhere 

 in this issue, a further note says: — 



'Only the couthweetern and southern por- 

 tions of the district tributary to the oaj 

 are likely to furnish timber of eeonomie 

 importance.' 



