Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1919 



465 



half of this increase occurred during the past 

 two years. In war time, wood is essential for 

 certain war-winning factors like high explos- 

 ives, black gunpowder, gas-masks, and aero- 

 planes. In brief, the forest has become the 

 basis of our safety in war and prosperity in 

 peace. 



What is Ontario doing to protect and develop 

 this invaluable resource? The Settlers' Fire 

 Permit law of 1917 was an important step to- 

 ward forest conservation and is working out 

 well in practice. The reorganization of the fire 

 ranging force, with closer supervision, has also 

 had fine results in largely increasing its relative 

 efficiency. Moreover the rangers are now being 

 equipped with abundant supplies of fire-fight- 

 ing apparatus, and the construction of perman- 

 ent improvements such as trails, telephone lines 

 and lookout towers is being undertaken. Fin- 

 ally, the Government in conjunction with the 

 Federal Conservation Commission plans to start 

 this fall on a general stock-taking of Ontario's 

 standing timber together with a classification of 

 the land in order to determine roughly what 

 areas should be devoted to farming and what 

 to forestry. 



LUMBERMEN AGREE. 



All of which is excellent and necessary, but 

 it still leaves untouched the basic questions of 

 slash disposal and proper providing of seed 

 trees. While on tour we met one superintend- 

 ent, two inspectors , three chief rangers, and 

 many rangers, of the Ontario patrol force and 

 they were a unit in regard to the urgent neces- 

 sity for a law requiring logging slash to be 

 promptly burned, i.e., at time of felling if feas- 

 ible, and in any case during the succeeding win- 

 ter or spring. For instance, the Inspectir at 

 Sudbury said it was emphatically his opinion 

 that unless all forest users were at once obliged 

 by law to pile and burn their brush it would be 

 impossible to save the remnant of our forests. 

 Furthermore, it is worthy of note that at Tem- 

 iscaming, North Bay, Chapleau, Port Arthur, 

 Dryden, Iroquois, and elsewhere the car was 

 visited by prominent lumbermen and paper- 

 makers who without exception agreed to the 

 reasonableness and soundness of the arguments 

 advanced by the Canadian Forestry Association 



— both as to slash disposal and forest renewal. 

 They admit the deplorable wood butchery which 

 springs from our Canadian practice of so gen- 

 erally entrusting the cutting operations to con- 

 tractors and ee nsub-contractors of a tenant! 

 We must have better legislation to change such 

 practices in Ontario and I believe the licensed 

 lumbermen themselves would welcome its ap- 

 pearance. No hardship can result if the new 

 requirements are impartially applied to all for- 

 est users. 



REAL VALUES ARE LOST. 



Again ,the ordinary operator cutting under a 

 mere blanket regulation recognizes no difference 

 between the life history (and therefore the 

 silvical requirements) of a spruce and a jack- 

 pine. We must get enough science into our 

 spruce harvesting to have this favored species 

 reproduce itself instead of all blowing down. 

 The whole problem calls for good-will, common- 

 sense, co-operation and science. 



The old futile idea of blaming the operating 

 lumberman fo rexisting conditions in our for- 

 ests is out of date. He is a useful citizeo whnse 

 enterprise provides employment for countless 

 thousands of his fellowmen, and with spruce at 

 $40 per M. he is not making as much money 

 as when the price was $15 to $20. The For- 

 estry Association is seeking to educate the aver- 

 age citizen up to the point of seeing that the 

 owner of the land is really the predominant part- 

 ner in the community of interests, exploiting 

 our forest resource; to see that in the long run 

 the public get several dollars for each dollar 

 the lumberman does: to see to it above all, that 

 their solemn trusteeship of the rights of all 

 future Canadians is more fully acknowledged 

 and honored. Such a "community spirit" is 

 growing rapidly, as witness the quardupling of 

 the Canadian Forestry Association membership 

 during the past four years. Conservation can- 

 not be practiced in spots, it must be general 

 to be effective. This requires a uniform law 

 which in turn is the creation of an educated 

 public opinion. 



To develop such an informed public opinion 

 is the sole object and mission of the Forestry 

 Exhibition Car. 



