TALKS BEFORE THE CLUB. 



The meetings of the Club have con- 

 tinued, one every other week, with great 

 success, and the talks provided have 

 ranged in subject matter over practically 

 every phase of forestry work in the field. 



On the evening of March 18th Mr. 

 Leigh Young spoke on "Reconnaissance 

 in British Columbia." The work he de- 

 scribed was done for the Canadian Pa- 

 cific Railroad in British Columbia, about 

 twenty to twenty-five miles north of the 

 Idaho line; the object being "the in- 

 ventory of the forest resources in suffi- 

 cient detail for use in a working plan, 

 and the work being distinct from fire- 

 claim work." The work was carried on 

 upon tie reserves held by the railroad un- 

 der a grant from the Province of Brit- 

 ish Columbia, the reserves being held as 

 a possible source for the future. He 

 gave a description of the country: 

 mountainous, but not especially rough ; 

 with practically no level land, very few 

 cliffs but good stiff slopes; and with a 

 range in elevation between 2450 and 6500 

 feet. The work was carried on upon two 

 different reserves under somewhat dif- 

 ferent conditions. The composition of 

 most of the stands, however, he describ- 

 ed as "quite mixed, with the change 

 from one type to another usually grad- 

 ual, making an endless number of 

 types," and causing difficulty in typing 

 the country on the basis of composition. 

 The few species found in pure stands, 

 he named over. As to the climate, he 

 said that there were no definite records, 

 but that the rainfall came in the first 

 part of the growing season, through 

 the latter part of June and the first part 

 of July. He also spoke of the repro- 

 duction and of the merchantable tim- 

 ber, and gave figures for these for the 

 different types. Speaking of the plan of 

 work pursued, he said that it was an un- 

 surveyed country, except for the bound- 

 ary lines, which had been swamped out 

 and big square posts placed at every 

 mile, the approximate area of the coun- 



try only being known. A 5 per cent, 

 estimate was used in good part, though 

 in places a 2 1-2 or 2 3-8 per cent estimate 

 took the place of it. Most of the lines 

 were run with a hand compass, one man 

 running the compass and a second man 

 taking an aeroid, this second man also 

 estimating and writing a forest descrip- 

 tion. After the control lines were run, 

 they ran estimate strips, by means of 

 which they got an estimate on the tim- 

 ber. The procedure was to run four 

 strips through a section, going down the 

 middle of a forty, each strip being a 

 chain wide. No attempt was made to 

 divide the land into townships. In the- 

 ory, a control of every two miles was 

 used, though the original purpose was to 

 have more control lines, the cost and 

 the poor work of the surveyor changing 

 the plans. The land was laid out on 

 the assumption that a strip of two miles 

 could be run in a day. The distance was 

 measured with tapes, though recorded in 

 chains. Checking up was done with a 

 Biltmore stick. He explained that in 

 addition to the field work a lot of office 

 work was called for, and an extra office 

 force was used. He enumerated the 

 crew and the equipment, the crew aver- 

 aging about thirteen or fourteen men, 

 the field work taking eight men in two- 

 men crews, with three to four men in 

 the office turning in a complete map and 

 summary. The main camp was usually 

 left in one place, and side camps were 

 used, four men being placed in a side 

 camp. The results as a whole, he said, 

 were fairly good. They succeeded in 

 getting, among other things, a fairly 

 good topographic map, a fair type map, 

 an estimate of the timber, a description 

 of all parts of the area, and approximate 

 growth figures. They were able to re- 

 port en a general description, a descrip- 

 tion of the timber types, the silvicul- 

 tural systems to be used, the rotation 

 for the timber species, a valuation of 

 the different parts, a plan of protection, 



