Canadian Forestry Journal, April, IQ20. 



179 



ascends the tree with his basket on 

 his back, leaning back against his 

 belt like a lineman climbing a tele- 

 phone pole. As much as a hundred 

 pounds of fruit is obtained from a 

 single tree, and as it takes a tree 

 about ten years from planting before 

 it produces a full crop, from when it 

 bears for perhaps a hundred years, it 

 can be readily seen that a tree once 

 producing is very valuable. Each tree 

 pays the British Government a tax 

 of eight annas (sixteen cents), while 

 any tree destroyed in camp construc- 

 tion is paid for. 



How Date Trees Are Used. 



The date furnishes the concentrated 

 food of the desert traveller in much 

 the same degree as bacon and flour 

 supply our woodland wanderers. All 

 the ancient caravan trails are strewn 

 with the date stones of the past. But 

 the date tree supplies stimulant as 

 well as food. The "arack" of the 

 East is distilled from fermented date 

 juice, and although the Prophet for- 

 bade the use of wine, it would seem 

 from the gait of some of his followers 

 during the feast of the Ramazan that 

 the rule was not strictly enforced. 

 The triangular base of the frond is 

 used for fire-wood, while the mid-rib 

 is split into strips which make an ex- 

 cellent framework for a bed. The 

 fibre around the base of the frond is 

 spun into rope. The bole of the tree 

 itself, although not what we would 

 call timber, was largely used by the 

 army in the absence of other trees, in 

 the building of bridges and wharfs. 



SAFETY IN THE AIR. 



Since the war, Mr. Handley Page, 

 recently visiting in Canada, has been 

 developing the commercial side of 

 aviation, and is planning enterprises 

 in three or four continents. Regular 

 services have been established be- 

 tween London and Paris, and London 

 and Brussels. Mr. Page could boast 

 with pardonable pride that on these 

 routes his machines had flown 65.000 

 miles and carried 4.200 passengers 



and 49,000 pounds of freight up to 

 March i without a single mishap. He 

 thinks Canada is a favorable field for 

 commercial aviation, because of its 

 great distances and its comparative 

 freedom from fog and the other varie- 

 ties of weather which hamper flying 

 in Great Britain. He suggests that 

 the aeroplane would be invaluable for 

 forest patrol and railway surveys in 

 new districts. On the superiority of 

 private enterprise over State control 

 in a business in which technical ad- 

 vances are so rapid, Mr. Page is em- 

 phatic. 



"Canadian youth in the air service 

 won a heritage of glory for the 

 Dominion." observes the Toronto 

 Globe. "The number of Canadian air 

 pilots in the war, 11,000 or one for 

 every 800 of the population, is a re- 

 cord unequalled. Mr. Page handsome- 

 ly acknowledges the vital part played 

 by this cotintry in winning for the 

 Empire supremacy in the air, and his 

 own obligation to Canadian aviators. 

 If commercial aviation has a future in 

 the Dominion, as Mr. Page thinks it 

 has. it will have a great body of 

 special skill to draw upon. 



THE CAUSE 



(Douglas Malloch. the Lumberman Poet.) 



There's something wrong about our 

 times: 



Some money madness fills our veins; 

 Now each upon his brother climbs — 



The more he climbs, the more com- 

 plains. 

 The worker wins a higher wage, 



To pay some other wage as high: 

 There's somctliing wrong about our age, 



And we who labor wonder why. 



What profit any profit if 



We do but feed upon ourselves? 

 Yet we who toil must also live. 



For our own need we fill our shelves. 

 The more we ask the more we pay, 



The more we pay the more we ask — 

 Like squirrels in a cage at play, 



The greater speed the greater task. 



I am no doctor learned in laws 



Of social or of psychic man 

 But yonder there must be a cause 



Where this insanity began. 

 I think we reap the punishment 



Of human folly— when we taught 

 Success was riches, gold content, 



And joy was something to be bought. 



