26o 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, 1920. 



In Ontario, slash disposal has been re- 

 quired in connection with two sales of 

 timber, one to the Shevlin-Clark Lumber 

 Company, in white and red pine, and the 

 other to the Graves-Bigwood Lumber 

 Company, on a tie operation in jack pine. 

 While no specific figures of costs are yet 

 obtainable, the indications are that, so far 

 as these particular cases are concerned, 

 the work is being handled at an additional 

 cost which will be quite within the bounds 

 of reason. Mr. L. E. Bliss, formerly 



Field Superintc 'dent of Fire Protection 

 with the Onta: .0 Forestry Branch, is in 

 charge of the tie operation for the 

 Graves-Biewood Company, and is fully 

 confident that the experiment in slash dis- 

 posal in question will be a comolete suc- 

 cess, at an additional cost not at all pro- 

 hibitive. 



In Quebec and New Brunswick, a num- 

 ber of comparatively small experiments 

 have been made, among the corr-panies 

 concerned, being the Laurentide Company, 

 Riordon Pulp and Paper Company, John 

 Fenderson Companj-, River Quelle Pulp 

 and Lumber Company and Bathurst Lum- 

 ber Company. In the first of these the 

 Commission of Conservation has co- 

 operated with the company, and in the 

 last it has co-operated jointly with the 

 Bathurst Company, and the New Bruns 

 V ;ck Forest Service, in both cases on ex- 

 perimental cuttings, to which further re- 

 ference is made in the section on forest 

 research. 



While space prohibits a full discussion 

 of costs in this report, it may be said 

 that, for the most part, the results thus 

 far are rather discouraging, as showing 

 costs which are too high to be feasible 

 for general adoption throughout logging 

 operations, so long as present high costs 

 of woods labor prevail. However, with 

 wages reasonably norm-al, the cost would 

 apparently not necessarily be prohibitive, 

 if the work w-ere handled to the best ad- 

 vantage. The most favorable figures thus 

 far reported are those for the Laurentide 

 experiment, where costs averaged ' around 

 $1 per cord for pulpwood or roughly $2 

 per thousand for saw timber. Other costs 

 are higher, in some cases, greatly so. 



It must, however, be recognized that 

 this work is still, in the east, in a purely 

 experimental stage, that knowledge is still 

 generally lacking as to the best methods 

 of conductine such work, that woods labor 

 is at present very expensive and some- 

 times far from efficient, and that, in some 

 cases, such experiments have to contend 

 with the natural conservatism of men _ac- 

 custom-ed through a lifetime to doing 

 things in a particular way. In the con- 

 duct of such experiments, care has to be 

 taken that such natural conservatism does 

 not take the form of open or concealed 

 hostility to the project, with consequent 



danger that costs will be made quite 

 prohibitive. In any event, if success is to 

 be expected, a good class of labor must 

 be assigned, and there must be close and 

 sympathetic co-ordination between the 

 work of the felling crews, and the men 

 assigned to slash piling and burning. That 

 such a spirit should sometimes be lacking 

 is perhaps not unnatural. Until slash dis- 

 posal comes to be accepted as a matter 

 of course — something which has to be 

 done — the best results cannot be antici- 

 pated. 



In the meantime, it is highly desirable 

 that further experiments be conducted, on 

 a com-mercial scale, in connection with 

 regular operations, in order that the full- 

 est possible information may be obtained. 

 At least until some basis can be devised 

 under which logging slash can be disposed 

 of, it is quite evident that provincial gov- 

 ernments must proceed slowly and cauti- 

 ously in relaxing diameter limit restric- 

 tions and permitting clean /:utting on 

 Crown lands, since otherwise the fire 

 hazard will be tremendously increased 

 through the much heavier accumulations 

 of inflammable debris on cut over lands, 

 to saj^ nothing of damage to present and 

 prospective young growth. 



At any rate there seems little doubt 

 that it would be greatly in the interest of 

 all concerned were there to be a general 

 requirement for the disposal of logging 

 slash along railway rights-of-way, wagon 

 roads, main tote roads, driving streams, 

 around camps and around the edges of 

 cutting areas. The cost of this, when 

 distributed over an entire "peiation. c:>u!d 

 not be prohibitive, and such action would 

 greatly increase the chances of controlling 

 fires in cut over lands and in preventing 

 the destruction of green timber. 



The disposal of inflammable debris out- 

 side railway rights-of-way is particularly 

 desirable, since so many fires start along 

 railwav lines, due to outside agencies as 

 well as to the railways themselves. In 

 iustice to the railways, as well as for the 

 protection of outside property, the desir- 

 ability of such action is qu-.te obvious 

 Leo-islation contemolating such action tc 

 at ^least a limited extent is in effect in 

 several of the provinces, but has not been 

 made generallv effective, though some be- 

 crinninis have been made for the most 

 part on a more or less voluntary basis 01 

 through co-operation, . 



It is significant, in this connection that 

 the St. Maurice Forest Protective Asso- 

 ciation has appropriated $20 000 to be ex- 

 pended in the disposal of inflammable 

 debris outside the right-of-way of the 

 Transcontinental Railway, through the 

 holdings of its members in the province 



of Quebec. r n i^ 



The value of such work was tuUy ue- 

 ir.onstrated several years ago in Ontario. 



