CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 115 



NEW BRUNSWICK. 



In New Brunswick the counties of Madawaska, Victoria and Carleton on the 

 upper St. John escaped fairly well, there being some comparatively small fires without 

 destruction of property. The two former counties are large producers of lumber and the 

 latter mainly an agricultural country. The Tobique river, the cut on which is 25,000,- 

 000 feet per annum, lies mainly in Victoria county. For the northern county of 

 Restigouche no fires wero reported In the counties on the St. Lawrence gulf, namely, 

 Gloucester, Northumberland, Kent and Westmoreland, considerable damage was done, 

 the loss in the first and third of these being placed at 2,000,000 feet respectively. In 

 Kent there were extensive fires, but as they were generally where fire had swept the 

 country before the loss was potential rather than present, and therefore could not be 

 estimated. On the Bay of Fundy, in the county of Albert and the eastern part of 

 St. John the estimate of the timber destroyed is 80,000,000 feet, two-thirds of which 

 would be from private lands. The western part of St. John county suffered seriously, 

 particularly in the vicinity of the village of Musquash, which was literally destroyed 

 causing a lo_ss which was estimated at $100,000. In this and the neighbouring county 

 of Charlotte, although fires covered a considerable area, there is no means of making 

 an estimate. Of the counties on the lower St. John, King's reported no fires of any 

 great extent, but in Queen's and Sunbury large fires occurred. There is little doubt 

 that in these two counties the loss of timber would reach over 100,000,000 feet, 30 or 

 35 millions being on Crown lands. Large fires also occurred in York county, but 

 nearly all on private lands. Heavy losses occurred in lumber, fences and buildings, 

 but the reports received do not give sufficient data for an estimate. To summarize, 

 184,000,000 feet of timber were destroyed, one village was wiped out of existence and 

 large losses in private property occurred, besides the potential value of the lands 

 which, already a brule, have been put still further away from the possibility of pro- 

 ductiveness. 



f 



ONTARIO. 



In the province of Ontario similar conditions prevailed in the early summer, and 

 numerous fires were started some of which were not extinguished until the rains came. 

 The largest area reported by the rangers for any one fire was ten square miles, but it was 

 apparently not in good timber, and the largest number of pine trees mentioned as 

 destroyed was 3,000 to 4,000. Nearly one hundred fires were reported by the fire- 

 rangers, but most were extinguished before reaching valuable timber or were not in 

 its vicinity. There were some destructive fires in the more settled districts. In the 

 counties of Prescott and Russell, particularly in the vicinity of Casselman, the loss 

 in farm buildings and wood was estimated at $10,000. In the northern part of the 

 county of Frontenac fires, reported to be started by farmers clearing land, got be- 

 yond control and destroyed some cordwood and lumber, several farms with their 

 buildings, two large bridges, and the village of Vennochar in the county of Adding- 

 ton adjoining was almost completely wiped out of existence. This fire began on April 

 30, and ran as a ground fire into the Eastern Timber Reserve, but owing to previous 

 fires before the present crop of timber started to grow there was very little debris on 

 the ground and the fire consequently did very little damage to the growing timber. 

 It is expected that most of the trees in the section where it ran along will survive. 

 Two hundred and seventy fire rangers were -employed during the year, twenty-.-ix 

 of whom were on Crown lands, and the cost of the service was $31,237. The report 

 of the Crown Lands Department states that the most exposed area of Crown lands was 

 along the line of the construction of the Temiskaming Railway and there the super- 

 vision was very close and every possible precaution was taken. The department en- 

 tered into arrangements with the Temiskaming Railway Commission by which it 

 was agreed that in the event of fire occurring all the employees of the commission and 

 the contractors, sub-contractors and others were bound to turn out and assist the fire- 

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