442 



Catuui'uDi Forestry Magaame, October, ig20. 



fences, ditches, roads all show j^lainly 

 and the areas of different kinds of land 

 a^so. 



Even the character of the soil can be 

 seen. The areas in cleared land, swamp, 

 burn, scrub timber, and good limljer can 

 be easily measured with a planimeter and 

 the exact value of the land determined. 

 A scale of prices for the different kinds 

 and qualities of land is detemiined and 

 pll lands are bought by it. The seller 

 and the purchaser can sit down over an 

 aerial photo and make a trade much bet- 

 ter than in any other way, for they have 

 all the details before them. 



In planning all kinds of engineering 

 work, laying out roads, ditches for 

 drainage, areas to be planted and so 

 lorth, the photos are of the greatest as- 

 sistance, and by taking a series the pro- 

 gress of the work can be checked very 

 much more rapidly than by ground mea- 

 surements. The areas cut over in a log- 

 ging operation can be checked on the 

 photos, the roads can be seen, areas left 

 uncut can be determined and the general 

 efficiency of the work can be judged. 



What the Work Costs 

 The general results from the work 

 promise well and the Laurentide Com- 

 pany has decided to make aerial work 

 part of its operations. Permanent han- 

 gars are being built, togetlier with houses 

 for the personnel and shops for the care 

 of repair work. 



The cost of the work, as carried on 

 experimentally, has not been excessive 

 and as it becomes standardized, can be 

 materially reduced. The main thing is to 

 have the machines in the air as much as 

 is possible so as to cut down the unit 

 costs of the work. The cost per mile 

 ■^v'orks out at about $3 per mile and the 

 cost of photographs at about 2.6 cents 

 per acre. This is based on the use of the 

 HS2L seaplanes which use about 25 

 gallons of gas per hour and are slow 

 climbers. Also there are many items of 

 expense which are incident to beginning 

 the work and which will be eliminated 

 later wdien more experience has been 

 gained. 



Easy Transportation, 

 To sum up the results so far obtained ; 

 for carrying men, whose time is valuable, 



to distant parts of the work, the planes 

 are most useful. The manager of a 

 company, with large woods interests getj^ 

 tied clown to his office and mill work, 

 and a trip into the woods consumes so 

 much time that he does not like to take 

 it. The same is becoming increasingly 

 true of logging managers and superin- 

 tendents. They do not like the hardships 

 01 long journeys into the woods and the 

 being out of touch with their general 

 work for days at a time. With the 

 jJanes, the most distant operations can 

 be visited and the work inspected with 

 only one night away from home. Local 

 foremen in the woods will be kept up to 

 their work much better. In case of ac- 

 cident doctors can be rapidly taken into 

 the woods and injured men brought out. 

 Mail can be taken in and reports brought 

 out much oftener. 



For rapid reconnaisance the planes 

 are invaluable. Tracts which are for 

 sale can be inspected in days where weeks 

 were required and the information ob- 

 tained is much more accurate and fuller 

 than can be had from ground work. Tn 

 a few hours in the air, the general drain- 

 age of a country can be determined, 

 burns, swamps and timbered areas, 

 sketched in, the species present noted and 

 the general character and quality of the 

 timber ascertained. Windfalls and in- 

 sect damage can be seen and all areas 

 estimated with more accuracy than from 

 a strip survey. When the ocular sur- 

 vey is supplemented with photos, there 

 is no room for doubt about the charac- 

 ter of the country and instead of de- 

 pending on the opinion of the man who 

 h;is made the reconnaissance, all the 

 responsible men interested can get to- 

 gether and discuss a purchase or a pro- 

 posed operation intelligently and with 

 the information before them. 



Spotting Fires 



Spotting forest fires and taking help 

 to extinguish them is a valuable part of 

 the work. 



The carrying of provisions to dis- 

 tant operations will certainly become a 

 part of the work before long, doing away 

 with the building of expensive tote roads 

 and making possible the placing of pro- 

 vis'ons just before the work begins, in- 



