Canadian F oTesiry Journal, January, 1919 



w 



less during the summer, follovvmg partial denu- 

 dation by fire of the forests on the watershed. 

 A $5,000,000 Crop. 

 From the above points it may safely be con- 

 cluded that the success of the irrigation system 

 of the Okanagan Valley, and thus the safety of 

 that valley's five million dollar crop is depend- 

 ent upon the forest cover on the watersheds. 

 For that reason as well as for the intrinsic value 

 of the timber and second growth, the British 

 Columbia forest service maintains a very efficient 

 system of fire protection in action in the 

 Okanagan and so far has been able to preserve 

 the important watersheds intact. Their con- 

 tinued protection rests as much with the public 

 in general and particularly with those who 

 travel in the forests, as with the Forest Service. 

 Most fires are set by human agency and if the 



public can be educated to the point where they 

 will set no fires at all, practically 9b"c of all the 

 fires that occur will be eliminated. The other 

 5*^ are caused by lightning. It comes down to 

 this: the output of the Okanagan is in the hands 

 of the people in more ways than one. They 

 must protect their water supply while growing 

 their crops. The Forest Service will maintain 

 its protection system to look after all accidental 

 fires and by constant publicity try to eliminate all 

 fires of human origin. 



We are thankful to say that a very commend- 

 able public spirit is manifest in the valley and 

 each year we see a little betterment of con- 

 ditions and a better spirit of co-operation and 

 care with fire on the part of the citizens. 



GEO. P. MELROSE. 



WHY SHOULD A TREE DIE? 



Dr. Bernard E. Fernom). 



So impressed was Dr. Asa Gray with the per- 

 sistence of individual tree life that he questioned 

 whether a tree need ever die: for the tree 

 (unlike the animal) is gradually developed by 

 the successive addition of new parts. It annually 

 renews not only its buds and leaves, but its wood 

 and its roots; everything, indeed, that is con- 

 cerned in its life and growth. Thus, like the 

 fabled Aeson, being restored from the decrepi- 

 tude of age to the bloom of youth, — the most 

 recent branchlets being placed by means of the 

 latest layer of wood in favorable communication 

 with the newly formed roots, and these extend- 

 ing at a corresponding rate into fresh soil,- - 

 why has not the tree all the conditions of exist- 

 ence in the thousandth that is possessed in the 

 hundredth or the twentieth year of its age? The 

 old central part of the trunk may, indeed, decay, 

 but this is of little moment, so long as new layers 

 are regularly formed at the circumference. The 

 tree survives, and it is difficult to show that it 

 is liable to death from old age in any proper 

 sense of the term. 



However this may be, we know trees succumb 

 to external causes. Nevertheless they are per- 

 ennial enough to outlive aught else, to be the 

 oldest inhabitants of the globe, to be more 

 ancient than any human monument, exhibiting 

 in some of its survivors a living antiquity, com- 

 pared with which the mouldering relics of the 

 earliest Egyptian civilization, the pyramids them- 

 selves, are but structures of yesterday. These 



dragon trees, so called, a genus of the Lily 

 family, found on the island of Teneriffe, off the 

 African coast, are believed to be many thousand 

 years old. The largest is only 15 feet in dia- 

 meter and 75 feet high. The Sequoias or Big 

 Trees and Redwoods on the California coast are 

 more rapid growers, and attain more than double 

 these dimensions in 3,000 to 4,000 years, which 

 may be the highest age of living ones. 



BUFFALO HERDS ARE THRIVING 



The current report of the Commissioner of 

 Dominion Parks contains information regarding 

 the national buffalo herds in Buffalo and Elk 

 Island parks. 



It is not very widely known that the Commis- 

 sioner of Dominion Parks has under his care 

 nearly three thousand buffalo, that live under 

 natural conditions, with the same habits of feed- 

 ing and the same liberty of range, within certain 

 limitations, enjoyed by the herds on the prairies 

 in the early days. These animals are healthy 

 and in splendid condition. Their handsome 

 appearance and the fact that the normal in- 

 crease is taking place afford excellent proof thai 

 they are in their natural surroundings. During 

 the year 1917 there was an increase of 356 

 buffalo in Buffalo Park, and 28 calves were born 

 in Elk Island park. The report states that the 

 younk stock are splendid types and arc thriving. 



