394 



Canadian Forestry Ma,i^a.:ine, August-September, ig20. 



A fire-swept jackpine ridge. The trees are all dead, but still rooted in rock crevices. All the soil is 

 consumed and the district transformed from a public asset to a public liability. 



The nation that holds great forests 

 holds the key to prosperity. If Canada 

 can retain her forests, Canada need fear 

 no public debt. 



A Forest and a Barn 



To retain forests, as to retain a wood- 

 en barn, means that fire shall be given 

 no point of entry. A simple formula 

 indeed with the barn, where all who ap- 

 proach it have a vital stake in its pro- 

 tection. \\\t\\ the forest un fenced, 

 mostly unwatched, the remedy is not so 

 simple. Consider the problem of the 

 Riordon Company, which controls a 

 timber area as large as Belgium. 



Essential as is all the machinery of 

 fire prevention and fire fighting, now 

 in effect, the niore comprehensive anti- 

 dote to forest fires is to undemiine the 

 cause, which is human carelessness. 

 Ranger patrol requires to be supplement- 

 ed by Educational Patrol. The settler 

 whose fires run riot and ruin timber 

 tracts is usually a reasonable sort of man, 

 influenced by intelligent appeals for his 

 co-operation. Thousands of men who 

 start forest fires do so out of a tradi- 

 tional ill-will towards limit holders, and 

 this is often fanned by selfish agitators. 

 Thousands of campers and fishermen 

 and hunters are waiting to learn by ex- 

 perience the extreme peril of careless- 

 ness bv fire while in the woods, but they 

 are willing to learn in advance if ap- 

 proached from the right angle. This 



all boils down to a consideration of the 

 value of educational propaganda fnr the 

 guarding of forests against the common 

 causes of fire. 



The Canadian Forestry Association, 

 co-operating with all Government and 

 private agencies, carries on aggressive 

 educational work throughout Canada, 

 aimed at preventing needless destruction 

 of the country's forest resources. The 

 success of these enterprises has received 

 abundant testimony. However, in a 

 forest estate so vast as even one pro- 

 vince, intensive propaganda can onlv be 

 achieved by large expenditures. It is 

 not an exaggeration to say that the total 

 revenues of the Canadian Forestry As- 

 sociation, now about 530,000 a year, 

 could be spent with great public profit 

 in any one of the forested provinces. 



The August-September Issue 



Readers will note that the August and 

 September issues of the Canadian For- 

 estry Magazine have been combined in 

 one number. This was necessitated by 

 such considerations as paper supplies 

 but equally as a means of issuing the 

 magazine henceforth at the beginning of 

 the month instead of at the end. Readers 

 will get the October number during the 

 first week of October, and this arrange- 

 ment will be maintained in future. — 

 Editor. 



