FORESTRY FROM THE AIR 



BY STANLEY FROST 



fi 



ANEW assistant to the forester has been thoroughly 

 tested and proven of great value during the last 

 two summers by Lieutenant Stuart Graham, of the 

 Laurentide Company, at Grand Mere, Quebec. The new 

 helper is the airplane in this case a flying boat. 



The work has been so successful that the company, 

 which started with 

 two planes, now 

 has three and will 

 add two or three 

 more for work 

 during the coming 

 summer. At least 

 four other of the 

 big lumber com- 

 panies in the St. 

 Maurice Valley are 

 also planning to put 

 in seaplanes for use 

 in 1921. 



It is the peculiar 

 nature of the coun- 

 try that lies be- 

 tween the St. Law- 

 rence and Hudson 

 Bay that permits 

 the use of sea- 

 planes. Through 

 this area about sev- 

 en per cent of the 

 surface is water, 

 and L i e u t e n ant 

 Graham states that 

 when cruising at an 

 altitude of 5,000 

 feet, he is almost 

 never at a point 

 where he could not 

 make a good land- 

 ing within the glid- 

 ing radius of the 

 plane in case of a 

 mishap to his en- 

 gine. He predicts 

 a very rapid spread 

 of the use of sea- 

 planes for forestry 

 work in any simi- 

 lar country al- 

 though, of course, it would be impossible in territory 

 where lakes are not numerous. 



The results of the work of the last two years have 

 been extremely valuable along several lines, but from the 

 point of view of the forester, they are peculiarly interest- 

 ing because of the ease, cheapness and speed of mapping 

 sn 



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A PICTURESQUE "SNAP" OF A FLYING BOAT THE NEWEST "ASSISTANT TO THE 

 FORESTER" IN PROTECTING AND MANAGING THE VAST DOMAINS FOR WHICH 

 HE IS RESPONSIBLE 



or making accurate aerial observations and for fire patrol. 

 The experiment was initiated by the St. Maurice For- 

 est Protective Association with the support of the Quebec 

 and Canadian Governments. The latter loaned to the 

 Association two HS2L seaplanes equipped with Pack- 

 ard built Liberty motors which had been left at Halifax 



when the Ameri- 

 can sea patrol was 

 withdrawn. Diffi- 

 culties of co-ordi- 

 nation, however, re- 

 sulted in the Asso- 

 ciation turning the 

 entire control of 

 the work over to 

 the Laurentide 

 Company. 



The company 

 owns many thou- 

 sands of square 

 miles of timber 

 land, scattered over 

 an area 270 miles 

 deep by 160 miles 

 wide. A part of 

 this territory is 

 across the height 

 of land from the 

 St. Lawrence and 

 on slopes that drain 

 into Hudson Bay. 

 Much of it is en- 

 tirely unsettled and 

 some so far from 

 headquarters that 

 it requires weeks 

 for exploring par- 

 ties to reach it and 

 some two or three 

 years for logs to 

 come from it to the 

 mill at Grand 

 Mere. 



Lieutenant Gra- 

 ham has found few 

 difficulties connect- 

 ed with the use of 

 the planes them- 

 selves. Concerning 

 this feature, he says : "Both of these planes with one 

 spare motor have been flying over vast lands since early 

 in June, 1919, and though minor troubles have been ex- 

 perienced, a machine has not yet been delayed in the 

 woods and the two planes have flown more than 16,000 

 miles over the forests. A great many exploration trips 



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