Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1919 



109 



ALBERTA HAS FIRST HONORS. 



By Harold Munro. 



They follow us and haunt us. AX^e must 



build 

 Houses of wood. Our evening rooms are 



filled 

 With fragments of the forest:. 



We 



sleep among the limbs of 



sit, move, sleep 

 trees. 

 Rejoicing to be near them. How men saw, 

 Chisel and hammer, carve and tease 

 All timber to their purpose, modelling 

 The forest in their chambers! And the raw. 

 Wild stuff .... 

 Will crack and shiver in the night, and 



sing 

 Reminding everybody of itself; 

 Out of decayed old centuries will bring 

 A sudden memory of growing tree. 



So they are felled, The hatchet swings: 

 They pass their way. . . . Some learn 



to sail 

 Seaward on white enormous wings, 

 Scattering blossom along their trail; 



And some, some trees, before they die, 



Carved and moulded small. 



Suddenly begin, — 



Oh, what a wild and windy woodland call 



Out of the lips of the violin! 



So trees are felled. . . . But tree 

 Lingers immovable where it has stood, 

 Livmg its tranquil immortality 

 Imjiassive to the death of wood. 

 And you — be certain that you keep 

 j Some memory of trees for sleep. 



+ 



B. C.'S FIRST AIR PATROL. 



The first aerial forest patrol in British Col- 

 umbia will probably have to do with a tract 

 of valuable timber, situated south of Victoria, 

 and running for 125 miles along the coast. 



One experiment in aeroplane work, and only 

 one, has been authorized thus far by the Domin- 

 ion Government. Some time during the sum- 

 mer the Dominion Forestry Branch will test a 

 machine in Alberta. It is understood that the 

 ordinary military plane as it stands is regarded 

 as unsatisfactory for forest guarding, and that 

 a stock machine of slow speed will be consider- 

 ably altered under the direction of Canadian 

 aviators who understand fire protection work. 

 This is an interesting and commendable move 

 on the part of the Dominion Forestry Branch 

 and will be eagerly watched. 



FIVE MILLION SEEDLINGS A YEAR. 



The Provincial Forester of Quebec, Mr. G. 

 C. Piche, announces that the capacity of the 

 tree nursery at Berthierville, is to be increased 

 to an annual production of 5,000,000 young 

 trees, partly in contemplation of the Provincial 

 Government adopting a programme of forest 

 planting on denuded Crown timber lands. 



If it pays the big pulp and paper companies 

 to reforest their waste lands, planting three- 

 year-old seedlings at a cost of from $9 to $10 

 an acre, why should it not pay the provinces 

 which have large areas of waste land to pursue 

 the same policy? asks the St. John, N.B., 

 Telegraph. 



OIL FROM BEECH NUTS. 



The nut of the beech tree yields a valuable oil, 

 used in soap-making, and as an illuminant. At 

 the present time, when the scarcity of oil is a 

 serious matter, these nuts become still more 

 valuable. In the Danish forest the work of 

 clearing the ground of withered leavs. under and 

 around the beeches, has now been started, in 

 order that the work of gathering the nuts, in ih? 

 autumn may be more easy, and the result more 

 satisfactory. The nuts will be collected (in 

 Denmark) in October and November, and trans- 

 ported to the oil mills. 



IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



South Africa has spent some 2.500.000 

 pounds sterling on organizing the wild forest, 

 and the work is only about half done. It is now 

 spending about one-seventh of a million pounds 

 yearly. 



