84 



Canadian Foresiry Journal, February, 1919 



periodic warnings and talks to school children on 

 forest fires have become a regular part of the 

 Association's campaign. 



To head off the forest fire season by winning 

 public co-operation, an effort was made to de- 

 velop an interest in a national advertising plan, 

 with the result that the Governments of Quebec, 

 Ontario and New Brunswick consented to sub- 

 scribe $2,000, 1 ,000, and $600 respectively, to 

 be supplemented by $6,400 from the Dominion 

 treasury. With the assistance of Messrs. A. 

 McKim of Montreal, a very complete plan vvas 

 built up whereby the newspaper-reading public 

 from coast to coast would be appealed to month 

 after month with graphic messages along the 

 lines of fire prevention. We were unable to 

 secure the final endorsation of the Dominion 

 Government in this matter, but the ground work 

 has been already done, and there are reasonably 

 good prospects of achieving our end in the early 

 part of 1919. 



Preparing Propaganda. 



In no year has the Association prepared and 

 issued such a quantity of educative literature. 

 To assist the work of the rangers in the three 

 prairie provinces, 15,000 booklets with colored 

 illustrations were prepared, each province being 

 treated separately. 20,000 copies of "A Part- 

 nership Offer" which demonstrated to the reader 

 the identity of interest between the ordinary 

 citizen and the Forests, were given circulation in 

 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 10,000 copies 

 of "Petit Catechisme de la Foret," which took 

 up the rudimentary questions commonly asked 

 by children as to the work of rangers, the owner- 

 ship of the forest resources, etc., were sent out 

 through the Forest Protective Association and 

 other agencies in Quebec. A duplicate edition of 

 10,000 copies entitled "The Child's Book of the 

 Forest" was prepared for special issue in On- 

 tario. Three issues of the Bulletin de Foret and 

 the Forest Bulletin were sent out in English and 

 French to thousands of rangers, clergymen and 

 others through Ontario and Quebec. 12,000 

 copies of "The Forests of Canada in Peace and 

 War," which related the cause of conservation in 

 the Dominion to the interests of the British 

 Empire, were given careful circulation through- 

 out Canada. 3,000 copies of "The Case for 

 Nova Scotia's Forests" were distributed in the 

 Province of Nova Scotia, and have proved a 

 valuable basis for our campaign in this province. 

 The foregoing illustrate some of the leading 

 pieces of publicity which have been used in 

 1918. 



Five Lecturers at Work. 



Unable through the limitation of its own finan- 

 ces to engage lecturers for special work, the 

 Association was fortunate in securing the co- 

 operation of the Quebec Forest Service and of 

 the Dominion Forestry Branch in providing 

 excellent propagandists for services in the 



French speaking districts of Quebec and New 

 Brunswick. Mr. J. A. Doucet of the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch was allowed by the Director of 

 Forestry to proceed to New Brunswick where, in 

 the month of May, he delivered 15 lectures, 

 usually before large audiences. This was the 

 first educational work yet accomplished in the 

 French speaking communities of Northern New 

 Brunswick along lines of forest protection and 

 the cause of forestry. Newspaper and other 

 reports of Mr. Doucet's work plainly show that 

 such services were very much needed, and when 

 tactfully carried out were much welcomed by 

 the French-speaking communities. The Asso- 

 ciation engaged Mr. A. H. Beaubien for three 

 weeks' work in the territory of the Ottawa River 

 Forest Protective Association. He managed to 

 cover very thoroughly the outlying parishes on 

 the northern part of the Mont Laurier division 

 in Quebec and the section of worst fire hazard 

 along the Maniwaki division. The response to 

 Mr. Beaubien's efforts is worthy of more than 

 passing notice, inasmuch as at several places 

 audiences of 300 and 400 persons, many of 

 whom had travelled long distances, listened with 

 close attention to the story of forest protection 

 and, without doubt, have today a more intelli- 

 gent realization of their personal responsibility. 

 About the first of June Mr. Piche permitted two 

 of his technical staff, Messrs. Baillarge and 

 Tessier, to engage in lecture work in the Lake 

 St. John region and through the territory of the 

 St. Maurice Forest Protective Association. In 

 all of this work the Forestry Association supplied 

 plenty of advertising matter, entered into 

 arrangements with local authorities, and was 

 responsible for the provision of the lecture 

 equipment. The fact that both of these lecturers 

 were given favorable receptions in all the 

 parishes visited and at the same time were 

 obliged to antidote a great deal of misconception 

 and prejudice in regard to the work of the fire 

 rangers and the public value of the forest in- 

 dustries emphasizes the necessity for intensify- 

 ing the educational effort through these and 

 other sections of Quebec. During the year 1918, 

 therefore, five lecturers conducted series of pub- 

 lic meetings under the auspices of the Canadian 



