Canadian Forestry Journal, February, 1919 



75 



state interference, but only this form of state 

 'interference' can possibly rescue private in- 

 dustry from obliteration. 



In Quebec, out of sheer necessity, the limit- 

 holders have banded together to form fire pro- 

 tective associations. Their range of holdings 

 now extends over 75,000 square miles, most of 

 which may be said to be guarded by the best 

 methods yet developed. A hydro-aeroplane 

 may be added to Central Quebec's fire-detecting 

 machinery next spring; the device is experi- 

 mental, but great possibilities are before it. 



Nova Scotia Still Waiting. 



New Brunswick's acceptance of state responsi- 

 bility in care of its forests has resulted in an 

 excellent organization freed from political con- 

 trol, with a technical forester at its head. Nova 

 Scotia has yet to create a Provincial Forest 

 Service, although the present condition of its 

 timber supply and the disastrous consequences 

 of further delay in methods of rehabilitation, 

 render such a public department even more 

 essential than in New Brunswick. 



Because much government machinery has 

 been brought into being for the mastery of the 

 forest fire menace, one must not conclude that 

 the plague is subdued. It will not be until the 

 economic and moral senses of the population are 

 considerably honed up by aggressive education. 

 Fire protection, however, is merely a rudiment 

 of forest management, corresponding to the 

 purchase of a sprinkler system in the art of 

 making motor cars. Each is fundamental, like 

 good health and macadam roads. But fire pro- 

 tection is not sufficient to reconstitute the values 

 in the denuded white pine or sprues forests of 

 Ontario and Quebec. It is not alone sufficient 

 to extend the life of the paper mills beyond the 

 doleful "fifty years" guessed at by so many 

 manufacturers during the recent paper inquiry. 

 It will not arrest the persistent crowding out of 

 the white spruce by the quickly rotting balsam, 

 nor will it maintain the supremacy of the coni- 

 ferous trees over the less important hardwoods. 



This is the field of Practical Foretry. Once 

 we have insured our forests against loss by fire, 

 and that day is not far distance in some parts of 

 Canada, the urgent duty of Government Forestry 

 Departments is to proceed to constructive for- 

 estry. 



The Ramrod Method. 



For an illustration: the Ontario lumberman in 

 white pine tracts, usually cuts clean; in Qu?bec 

 he cuts to a diameter limit. In the first instance, 

 the areas too often grow up in valueless hard- 



woods; in the second instance, the diameter 

 restriction fails in its purpose of retaining seed 

 trees and leaves a scattering of young trunks to 

 be wasted by windfalls. This clearly indicates 

 the futility of any fixed method blanketing a 

 whole province. Nature defies ramrod regula- 

 tions, for local conditions must be separately 

 considered. In other words, logging to be car- 

 ried out with respect for a future growth is a 

 matter of constant technical supervision and 

 can best be done by forest engineers working 

 for the perpetual custodian, viz.: the Govern- 

 ment. 



It is supreme national folly to refrain longer 

 from applying state authority to the utilization 

 of the public forest possessions. If there 

 is any other method of shielding the 

 nation from the consequences of timber denuda- 

 tion, five centuries and a dozen nations have not 

 discovered it. New Brunswick, once growing 

 pine like wheat stalks, has now so little of the 

 stock that lumbermen cut six logs of other 

 species to one of pine. Is this stupid acceptance 

 of what constitutes a commercial blow, a slash- 

 ing of export trade, a closing of mills, to be 

 allowed to run parallel to all sort of expensive 

 national schemes for reconstruction and read- 

 justment. A basic resource out at elbows, the 

 foundations of our greatest industrial enterprise 

 being kicked out stone by stone, and as yet no 

 hand lifted to provide the obvious remedy. 

 White pine and spruce forests can be so operated 

 as to maintain the capital stock for all time to 

 come. Probably no man alive can write out a 

 formula for it like a cure for toothache. What 

 might be an excellent method in France or New 

 England may be altogether fantastic for the 

 Coulonge river in Quebec. Market conditions 

 are in themselves a prime factor in practical 

 forestry. Each region must be considered in its 

 special details; the best method of handling each 

 tree species is a proper subject of experimental 

 plots given varied treatment. This has been 

 instituted for the purpose of spruce reproduction 

 studies in parts of Quebec and New Brunswick 

 by the Commission of Conservation working 

 with the Provincial Government and commercial 

 companies. One of the surprises brought out in 

 the preliminary reports is that a spruce tree 

 under present conditions does not reach twelve 

 inches diameter inside of 175 to 200 years. Such 

 facts only go to show the gross short-sightedness 

 of destroying by careless cutting operations the 

 reproductive capacity of this truly wonderful 

 but slow-acting forest organism. What is being 



