62 .l\.l/)/.l.V /oA'/.'.xTAT ASSOCIATION. 



tlio legislature an Act. providing lor the appointment of .-hief rangers an i 

 sub-rangers in the different mxmicipalities, the salary of the chief ranger to be paid by 

 the government and the services of the sub-rangers and special time employed by the 

 chief ranger to be paid by the municipalities out of a fund to be obtained by imposing 

 a tax of i of one cent per acre upon the holders of all timber lands of 1,000 acres and 

 upwards. The act has been brought into operation in the municipalities of Annapolis, 

 Digby, Clare, Yarmouth, Shelburne, Queen's, Lunenburg, Colchester and Pictou, and 

 it is working wonderfully well, more effectively indeed than I had ever hoped. The 

 chief ranger has been found a most effective means of preventing fires and of instantly 

 and by authority aggregating forces to put out a tire immediately it is started. In the 

 municipalities in which a chief ranger has been appointed no fires of any consequence 

 occurred during the last season although it was an uncommonly dry one. 



The Act provides that no buyh fire shall be set without previous notice to the 

 chief ranger and with his consent and this part of the Act is being cheerfully com- 

 plied with by all persons clearing lands in these municipalities. 



Reforestation is a matter which is engaging the attention of the government and 

 of the Crown Lands Department. We should be glad to have any practical sugges- 

 tions in that line, but not enough light and information of a definite character has 

 yet been afforded to justify us in launching out in any large scheme in that regard. The 

 department, I think, would be willing to bear the expense of a careful investigation 

 by an expert in forestry, on the question of whether or not any practicable scheme of 

 reforestation is possible in Nova Scotia. 



We are also considering the propriety of reserving tracts of land at the head of 

 navigable waters for special public services and it is likely that something definite 

 in this line will be inaugurated at an early date. 



This constitutes, I think, about all that can be said of a practical character iu 

 relation to forestry in Nova Scotia. 



The extent of ungranted forest lands in Nova Scotia as set forth in the last 

 Crown Land Report, is 1.516,631 acres. I estimate that the number of acres of 

 granted land now being used for lumbering purposes in Nova Scotia would not be 

 far short of these figures. 



FOREST WEALTH OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. 



J. C. LANGELIER, QUEBEC. 



The census of 1901 shows that the land superficies of the province of Quebec com- 

 prises 218,723,687 acres. At the date of that census, 7,421,264 acres were under crops, 

 in pasture, gardens and orchards, while bushes, rocks and marshes, or other untim- 

 bered spaces, occupied 1,560,960 acres, leaving for the forest an area of 209,741,463 

 acres, or 327,721 square miles. 



Under the heading of ' Forests,' the census mentions only 5,442,204 acres. This 

 number represents only the forest area comprised within the 14,424,428 acres of lands 

 occupied in all the provinces and does not apply to fortsts situated outside of priv- 

 ate lands, or lands held under title grants. 



Conifers predominate throughout these forests ; spruce, fir, pine, cedar and hem- 

 lock, enumerating them by order of predominence, form at least 75 per cent of the 

 timber growth. Excepting white brich (bouleau) and tamarack, which grow as far sis 

 the northern boundary of the province, deciduous trees, or hardwoods, do not grow 

 beyond the 48th parallel of latitude. The only exceptions noticed so far are a few 

 places in the Saguenay district, and in the southern section of the Abitibi territory. 

 where some yellow birch and black ash trees have been seen north of that latitude. 



For the purpose of classifying them according to the prevailing growths, the forests 

 of the province of Quebec may be divided into three very distinct regions: 



