CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 9 



Forest fires are still causing destruction in Canada, although their extent "has 

 been largely controlled by the fire-ranging system now generally adopted through the 

 Dominion. British Columbia has, outside of the railway belt which is protected by 

 Dominion fire rangers, suffered the most severely, as the season was dry throughout, 

 and that province has, unfortunately, in spite of its great forest wealth, not provided 

 for a fiie ranging force such as has proved effective in other parts of Canada, In 

 Nova Scotia the Fire Warden Service established under the Act passed at the last 

 session of the legislature, has proved successful in the counties in which the system 

 was inaugurated. The report of the Crown Lands Department shows that numerous 

 fires were prevented or extinguished in their incipiency, and the loss in many counties, 

 large in previous years, has been reduced to a minimum. 



Under Dominion jurisdiction there were forty fire rangers employed, and the 

 result was that there was very little destruction by forest fires, except in the Crow's 

 Nest Pass, where there was great difficulty in controlling them. The success in the 

 railway belt in British Columbia in preventing loss was most marked, and to show 

 how the cost of a fire-ranging service is saved over and over again in the value of the 

 timber protected, it will be permissible to quote from a letter received by the Domin- 

 ion Forestry .Branch from the Columbia River Lumber Company as follows: 



' We feel satisfied that without the fire ranging system and the extra work which 

 was done in the last six weeks, practically all the timber tributary .to Shuswap lake 

 would have been destroyed, and, as you know, this amounts to a good many hundreds 

 of millions of feet.' 



TREE PLANTING. 



The tree planting scheme under Federal management in Manitoba and the 

 North-west Territories continues to develop. During the year 1904, 1,800,000 trees 

 were distributed to 1;027 settlers, an average to each of 1,752 trees. In 1905 the dis- 

 tribution will be 2,000,000 trees to 1,120 settlers. The Forestry branch has so far sent 

 out about 5,000,000 trees and 2,000 pounds of tree seed. Educational work in this con- 

 nection is being done by addresses at the meetings of farmers' institutes, and a for- 

 estry exhibit was shown at the Dominion exhibition at Winnipeg. 



In Ontario a beginning has been made in the setting ou1. of a nursery at the 

 Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph, from which the farmers of that province may 

 obtain supplies of forest trees for planting. Lectures on forestry will be given at 

 farmers' institutes and gatherings of a similar nature, to explain the plans of the 

 government, and furnish general information on the management of trees. 



In view of the difficulty experienced in British Columbia through the starting 

 of fires in the clearing of land, your board at its meeting on October 27 last passed a 

 resolution, which was transmitted to the government of that province, suggesting that 

 the Bush Fires Act should be amended so as to prohibit the starting of fires for the 

 clearing of land between the first day of May and the first day of November in each 

 year, unless a special permit for the purpose be granted by the forest ranger or other 

 officer appointed for the district in which such permission is asked. 



In the first week of January of the present year, a forest congress was held at 

 Washington, which was attended by a number of Canadian representatives. The 

 congress brought together some four hundred people, representing not only the scien- 

 tific foresters and the forest enthusiasts, but practical and leading men in the lumber 

 industry, in railroad management, in mining, in irrigation and manufactures, men 

 whom the practical necessities of the case had forced to take an interest in forestry 

 and who showed by their presence and active interest that forestry is no longer a fad 

 but a business question of supreme national importance. The effect of this meeting 

 on the public of the United States should be far-reaching and it is a question worthy 

 of consideration as to whether the time has not arrived to make a special effort of 

 a similar nature in Canada. 



