west of those two central divisons are being equipped as 

 rapidly as possible. This is the most advanced step taken 

 for the prevention of forest fires and the reduction to a min- 

 imum of danger from locomotives. 



"As oil is not produced in the country there has been some 

 criticism of the company from the fact that no labor receives 

 the initial benefit of its production, but the preservation of 

 the timber tracts seems to us of more consequence to the 

 country as a whole than a sentiment about the production 

 of fuel. 



Not Burning Up Revenue. 



"Taking the transportation of a country as one of the great- 

 est of its assets it cannot therefore be charged that the set- 

 ting of fires by locomotives is due to carelessness, for that 

 would be burning up one of the greatest sources of revenue." 



The vice president of the Canadian Pacific pointed out that 

 most of the fires in Canada were caused either on the logging 

 railroads, by careless settlers or campers, open burners of 

 sawmills, etc. He said that a comparison of the number of 

 fires along the logging lines and standard lines showed that 

 a big percentage of the fires were on the former. 



Revenue Derived From Timbered Lands. 



"It has been estimated that the revenue derived by a rail- 

 way from the production of one acre of heavily timbered land 

 is equal to the accumulated traffic of one acre of agricul- 

 tural land for 80 years," continued Mr. Bury. "You will thus 

 see what the preservation of forests adjacent to its lines 

 means to a railroad. The opening of timber tracts by a rail- 

 way is followed by an influx of trappers, prospectors, sur- 

 veyors and settlers, each intent upon his own interests and 

 without the restraint of organized authority. Prospectors im- 

 patient to follow up their discoveries, loggers cutting the vir- 

 gin timber and homesteaders clearing the land for the plow, 

 have all been responsible for the starting of fires. But long 

 before railways, prospectors or surveyors traversed the coun- 

 try, fires were set by natives to drive out the game. Modern 

 thought and a policy of construction instead of destruction 



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