CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 87 



FOEEST FIBES AND MAKING SQUARE TIMBER IN THE WOODS. 



BY WILLIAM LITTLE. 



Honorary President of the Canadian Forestry Association. 



As the subject of forest fires is of extreme importance to Canada, I crave your in- 

 dulgence for giving some reflections of my own with reference to the serious losses 

 sustained in some of the older provinces of the Dominion with which I have had per- 

 sonal experience. 



This is a topic about which so much has been said and written of a character to 

 leave the false impression that the great aim of nature was to destroy the forests by 

 fire as rapidly as possible, and that all efforts of man were futile in prolonging their 

 existence a plea made by Crown Lands Commissioners as an excuse for their im- 

 prudent disposal of timber limits at the merest trifle of their value, and also by care- 

 less lumbermen for conducting their operations in a wasteful and reckless manner. 

 And with the government at the same time actually deluding ignorant people to settle 

 on the Laurentian rocks, covered 1 only with a few inches of leaf mould, which as soon 

 as exposed to the sun's rays by the removal of the timber is dried up and blown away 

 by the winds and from, which they can at best eke out a miserable existence for a very 

 few years, while constantly exposing the surrounding timber to the risk of fire 

 it is hardly to be wondered at that millions of acres of valuable timber have been need- 

 lessly sacrificed. 



My own experience has taught me that in the great majority of cases the fires came 

 after the lumberman, not before him, and that with proper precaution and ordinary 

 care fully grown pine forests even should not be considered a hazardous risk. They 

 are not so considered in Germany or France or other European countries where proper 

 precaution is taken for their protection. In France pine forests have been insured 

 against loss by fire at as low a rate as one franc per thousand francs on trees fifty years 

 old and upwards, or say one-tenth of one per cent per annum for mature timber. 



In Sweden and Norway, where the forests are nearly all coniferous, the fire loss is 

 comparatively trifling. Indeed I am advised that it is only to Americans and Turks 

 that belongs the invidious distinction of being the great destroyers of the forest. 



In corroboration of this immunity from loss by fire when the forests are properly 

 administered permit me to give some replies sent in answer to inquiries made by Gen- 

 eral C. C. Andrews, chief fire warden of the state of Minnesota, in 1902, respecting 

 losses by fire in European countries. 



From France the report was: "In the temperate and cold regions of France 

 (that is in the larger portion of the territory,) the fires are but few and cause slight 

 damage." Norway with a state forest area of 2,587,000 acres, and private forests of 

 18,000,000 acres reports : " The damage caused by fires is inconsiderable in the public 

 forests. Many years there is none, and the damage done to private forests is of small 

 account and not reported." Sweden with 18,000,000 acres of forests reports : " Only 

 1,200 acres damaged and loss about $10,000." Prussia having over 6,000,000 acres of 

 state forests from which it derives a net revenue of $8,500,000 reports : " About 3,600 

 acres damaged in the four years from 1892 to 1896." Austria receiving a net revenue 

 of $693,000 from 2,573,000 acres of state forests reports : " An average loss of $32,000." 

 Bavaria with 2,150,000 acres from which it derives 'a net income of $3,227,000 reports: 

 " The damage caused by forest fires is quite insignificant, being in 1890 only $964, and 

 in 1894 only $1,686." The Duchy of Baden with 240,000 acres and a net revenue of 

 $667,000 reports : " For the nine years 1879-1888 the damaged surface was 99 acres, and 

 the damages, $2,225." Wurtemburg with 400,000 acres and a net revenue of $1,774,000 

 reports : " A fire loss of $640." And Saxony with 432,000 acres of forests and a net 

 revenue of $1,946,000 reports : " The average loss is $300 a year." 



