AIRPLANES FOR FOREST WORK 



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just as they stand, at public auction. In some cases the 

 trees are cut by the Government and tlien sold. The 

 brush, bark and roots all command a ready sale. As 

 soon as a tree is cut a young one is put in its place. The 

 young trees are raised from the seed, and as much care 

 is taken to procure good seed as a gardener would take 

 to get good seed for his melon patch. The young trees 

 are transplanted several times, and are about two and a 

 half to five feet tall when planted permanently in the 

 forest. An inventory is taken of the forest every two 



years and the consumption of timber regulated. Herr 

 Katz says the amount of timber in the Black Forest is a 

 fixed quantity and does not increase or diminish. He 

 thinks that in fifty years there will be no more or less 

 timber in South Germany than today. The trees do not 

 taper as much as our American pine. They rise so high 

 without any sensible diminution of size that they look 

 more like gigantic cylinders planted in the earth than or- 

 dinary trees. Masts 150 feet long are sent to Holland. In 

 other parts of Germany the timber is smaller than here." 



AIRPLANES FOR FOREST WORK 



By EUwood Wilson 



The development of commercial aviation, on lines other 

 than mail and transportation seems to have made a good 

 beginning in Eastern Canada. The Laurentide Air Serv- 

 ice has several contracts for mapping timber lands which 

 will run into several hundred hundred square miles and 

 will show the timber types, drainage, burns etc. These 



not get into the air again. This shows that winter flying 

 under the most difficult conditions is quite feasible and 

 there will probably be no reason for shutting down aerial 

 operations in winter. 

 The plane arrived at Moose Factory Hudson Bay Post 



are made on a basis of a fixed rate for a square mile of ^, ''"^""^ "^^^ "P ^'' breakfast and everyone tum- 



mosaic or map as the- buyer may elect, and the cost will 

 be much less than ground work of similar accuracy or 

 thoroughness. It will also contract for fire protective 

 work, covering not only spotting of fires but also their ex- 

 tinguishing as the plane can carry three men and a gaso- 

 line fire pump in addition to the crew. 

 As at present carried out in Quebec the ground patrol 



bled out in great excitement, entirely unable to imagine 

 what the noise overhead was. Mail from Montreal us- 

 ually takes nearly two weeks and a letter arrived the 

 night before the plane telling of its coming, but was not 

 read until after its arrival. 



The possibility of all sorts of work in the great track- 

 less north country is very large. One of the things 



see the area covered once in fifteen days, the planes would under consideration is the payment of the treaty money to 

 see it every day that it did not rain and by spotting the '^^ Indians. This trip usually takes eleven or twelve 

 fires and going down and putting them out while they weeks and costs a lot of money. With the plane it can be 



were very small, would save largely in fire fighting cost 

 but would very materially save in burnt over area. It is to 

 be hoped that someone will give this system a good try 

 out as contracts will l)e made on a basis of so much per 

 square mile or no payment. 



Capt. Maxwell, of this Service, made a splendid flight 

 from railhead at Cochrane, Ontario, to Hudson Bay in 

 January, with an Avro machine fitted with a rotary en- 

 gine and toboggans. The trip which takes eight days 

 by dog team was made in two hours and forty minutes 

 and no trouble happened with the machine and no hard- 

 .ship was encountered. A full emergency kit of food, 

 sleeping-bags, snowshoes, tent, ax, rifle, etc., was carried 

 in case of a forced landing from which the plane could 



done in about two weeks and at a great saving. Explor- 

 ing, prospecting, reconnaissance for railway lines and for- 

 estry work will all be done. This opens up the possibility 

 of cruising for purchase which can be done more ac- 

 curately and in a small fraction of the time taken for a 

 ground map and estimate and the buyer and seller can 

 discuss the transaction across the table with the photo- 

 graphs before them and without having to rely on a 

 cruiser's report. In the survey mentioned above, eleven 

 square miles were covered per actual flying hour. 



The Spanish River Company, Ltd., have made a con- 

 tract with the Dayton-Wright Company for a similar 

 survey and it will probably soon be the accepted method 

 for such work. 



TN Sweden stumps seldom exceed three inches in height 

 -* in the forests. No logging machinery of any kind 

 is generally used. Top logs, down to one or two inches 

 top diameter, are bunched and strapped with steel wire 

 and floated to the nearest charcoal plant. The saw logs 

 are on the average, 6J/2 to 7 inches in top diameter and 

 average in length about 17 or 18 feet. The logs are 

 generally barked in the woods in order to prevent an ac- 

 cumulation of barks in the river and at the mills. 



/^NE of the largest and most perfect fir trees ever 

 ^-^ felled in Washington was recently cut at Kapowsin 

 and turned into lumber by a local mill. The tree stood 

 more than 300 feet high and seven 32-foot logs were cut 

 below its branches. These logs were of a diameter of 

 nine feet and weighed 275 tons. They were worth $3,000 

 in the rough and the first grade flooring obtained from 

 them will sell for several times that sum. The logs scaled 

 from 45,000 to 50,000 each. Daily News Intermountain 

 District. 



