132 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1919 



NEW "MUST" WRITTEN IN QUEBEC FIRE LAW 



The Government of Quebec is about to pass 

 legislation by which limit-holders refusing to 

 join one of the four fire protection associations 

 in the province will be compelled to provide 

 adequate patrol on their lands or have the work 

 done by the associations at owners' expense. 

 This step bridges a very obvious gap in Quebec's 

 fire prevention system inasmuch as certain limit- 



holders declined to co-operate in fire guarding 

 or establish a sufficient patrol on their own in- 

 itiative. The consequences were that in and 

 about the association's areas were blocks of 

 forest offering a constant fire menace and inter- 

 fering with the continuity and economy of 

 patrol. 



LIMIT HOLDERS TO EXPERIMENT WITH SLASH 



As an organization unafraid of fresh ideas 

 commend us to the Woodlands Section of the 

 Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. No 

 sooner was the Montreal Forest Conference 

 closed than Secretary A. L. Dawe addressed the 

 following to all the limit-holding companies: 



. What Are You Doing With Your Slash? 



It has been realized for some time that cut- 

 over lands are the greatest fire risk with which 

 we have to deal and also that the decaying slash 

 left on the ground is a breeding place for fungi 

 and bark beetles which are working enormous 

 damage in our woods. This damage is said to 

 be almost as great as that from forest fires. 



Try this for the balance of this winter and 

 next season: You are requested to pick out 

 one or two camps in your next winter's opera- 

 tions and try brush burning along the following 

 lines: 



Make a fire. A boy can be added to every 

 two logging crews, who on going to work in the 

 morning should start a small fire and the fellers 

 should be instructed to fall the trees as nearly 

 as possible so that the tops may come near the 

 fire. As fast as the trees are swamped, that is 

 the limbs cut off, a boy should gather up the 

 branches and throw them on the fire. When 

 the top is reached a man should help the boy 

 place it on the fire and all should be burnt. 



Watch the fire. The location of the fire, as 

 far as possible, should be chosen so that no 

 living trees or at least only a few small ones 

 will be damaged. The fires do not need to be 

 at all large for spruce and balsam as this 

 burns very easily indeed. 



Keep a note of the cost. The cost of this 

 operation should be carefully kept and compared 

 with the cost of making logs in similar territory 

 in previous years, also if possible it would be 

 interesting and very valuable to have the actual 

 cost studied at some time during the operation, 



so that the time it takes the men to haul and 

 swamp a tree and the time that is employed in 

 putting the brush on the fire. 



What do we gain by this? A collection of 

 results from a number of companies would give 

 a very fair average cost of this sort of work. 

 You are asked to give this a fair trial and to 

 impress on your wood foremen that this is not a 

 matter for jesting. You are all familiar enough 

 with the attitude of the men in the woods to 

 realize that unless the seriousness of this is im- 

 pressed on the foreman, that they will make light 

 of it and do all in their power to push the cost 

 up as far as possible. 



Checking up. By having a number of com- 

 panies doing work along the same lines it will 

 be very easy to pick out the men who have tried 

 to do the work faithfully from those who have 

 not. You are urged to give this brush burning 

 a fair trial and to co-operate in every way pos- 

 sible to establish whether such is practical and 

 economical or not. 



Will you let me know that you are ready to 

 help along in this work? 



The Woodlands Section has already taken the 

 lead in co-operative work. Let's go further. 



QUALITY OF SOIL IN TREE GROWING. 



After depth and acccessibility (or possible ac- 

 cessibility) the important point coming before 

 the forest demarcator is quality of soil. I place 

 quality of soil after depth and accessibility, be- 

 cause quality of soil is less important in forestry 

 than in agriculture. To a great extent the 

 forest will make and keep its soil; forest is 

 naturally a soil improver, agriculture a soil ex- 

 hauster. So that as regards forestry and agri- 

 culture, forest should occupy soil that is deep 

 and penetrable by roots, but poor in an agri- 

 cultural sense. — From "Australian Forestry." 



