504 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By ELLWOOD WILSON 



On the 28th of May the flying boat of 

 the Laurentide Air Service, accompanying 

 a sister ship on its way to northern Ontario, 

 discovered several serious forest fires. On 

 returning to Grand Mere, the5e were report- 

 ed to the writer. On the morning of May 

 31st a flight was made to locate th? fires, 

 ascertain the damage done and to plan for 

 the control of the fires. Almost immedi- 

 ately the plane was in the air, smoke could 

 be seen in heavy clouds to the north, and 

 within an hour the scene of the first fire 

 was reached. It seemed literally to be eat- 

 ing up the stands of conifers, and flames 

 could be seen rushing up the trunks of the. 

 trees and rushing on before the wind. The 

 fire was seen to have a front of about six 

 miles, then there was a gap and to the 

 west another fire with a front of fourteen 

 miles was burning and sending up a barrier 

 of smoke so dense that one could not see 

 across it. The; smell of smoke was dis- 

 tinct at five thousand feet. The areas al- 

 ready burned were noted and the plane 

 pushed on to the nearest point where fire- 

 fighters could be obtained and landed. The 

 boat used for landing during the previous 

 season had been taken away so that it was 

 necessary for one of the crew of the plane 

 to swim ashore with a line for mooring. 

 The plane was refueled and the Company 

 Depots were notified to send men by canoe, 

 immediately to the scene of the fire. We 

 heard that the Manager of the Fire Pro- 

 tective Association was on his way to take 

 charge of the work, having left about ten 

 in the morning by automobile. The plane 

 had left at 12:30 and had arrived at the 

 district headquarters, after looking over 

 the fires at about twp. The Manager 

 hove in sight about four. He was immedi- 

 ately taken up in the plane to look over 

 the situation and at eight that evening the 

 plane started back to the base. About nine 

 it was becoming too dark to land com- 

 fortably at the base so we dropped down at 

 a Club and spent the night. The, situation 

 as seen from the air was so serious that a 

 meeting of the Fire Protective Association 

 was held and itrimediate steps taken to 

 improve the service. All the fires but one 

 seemed to have bee.n set by men hunting, 

 fishing and trapping in the woods, ofnvhom 

 there were many owing to the scarcity of 

 work. The Fire Protective, .Association di- 

 rectors went to Quebec and met the Execu- 

 tive Council of the Government and the 

 Premier and asked that the law, passed 

 at the last session of the legislature, em- 

 powering the Minister of Lands to forbid 

 a!I persons entering the forests without 

 first "curing a permit, be immediately put 

 in force. The Cabinet, after the hearing, 

 imniedijilely i^^ued an order-in-council re- 

 quiring cvcryine going into the woods to 



obtain a permit and the priests in all the 

 parish churches were asked to give out 

 the notice at the following Sunday service 

 and the order was published in the news- 

 papers. Men were appointed in all the towns 

 and villages near the forest to issue the 

 permits. The Government of Quebec is 

 much to be commended for passing such 

 important legislation and for the prompt- 

 ness with which the situation was met and 

 the law enforced. From the 31st of May 

 until the loth of June the plane patrol 

 was continued. Messages were' dropped, 

 ordering men on the drive to go and fight 

 fire. The Fire Inspector in charge of the 

 district was flown over the fire daily so 

 that he might see how best to fight it, all 

 the men fighting one fire were kept in pro- 

 visions which the plane carried in, and men 

 to take charge of the fire-fighting crews 

 were taken to and from the, fire by air. The 

 fires this season have demonstrated that 

 men traveling in the woods as patrolmen in 

 canoes do not discover fires soon enough 

 and are not able to visit their territory 

 often enough. Also that fires can only be 

 controlled by men who understand how to 

 fight them, and who are willing to put 

 their whole hearts and souls into the work. 

 The idea that a fire once started cannot 

 be extinguished is wholly erroneous and is 

 but a confession of weakness on the part 

 of the man holding it. Lookout stations, 

 supplemented by air patrol, with planes to 

 carry men, provisions and fire fighting 

 equipment and to direct the fire-fighting 

 will very soon make disastrous forest fires 

 things of the past IF the personnel is right. 



The first plantation of Norway spruce 

 made by the Laurentide Company in 1914 

 has begun to seed and the seeds will be col- 

 lected and planted to ascertain if they are 

 fertile. A plantation of Scots Pine made in 

 1908 seeded in 1917 and trees from that 

 first seeding are now about three feet high 

 and growing nicety. Much white pine 

 growing in eastern Quebec is subject to 

 attacks of the white pine weevil and this 

 has spread to plantations of Norway spruce 

 and Scots pine, but has been controlled ef- 

 fectively by cutting off the infected shoots 

 and burning them, and also by breeding 

 the parasites. On the white pine and Nor- 

 way spruce the insect commonly attacks 

 only the leaders or terminal shoots, but on 

 the Scots pine the shoots at the ends of 

 the branches are; also attacked. 



The experience of planting Norway spruce 

 so far, goes to show that it makes good 

 and rapid growth on good soils, particularly 

 if they are moist, but that it is a poor 

 tree for poor dry soils. If the soil is too 

 wet, as in swampy ground, it will not grow 

 at all. White spruce on the other hand 



seems to thrive in almost any situali 

 particularly the variety with needles . 

 bluish-green color. In planting Norway 

 spruce great care must be taken to see 

 that the main root is not bent, otherwise 

 the tree will thrive for a time and then 

 suddenly die oflf. 



The first number of a very good forestry 

 journal in French has just been issued by 

 the Societe generate dc Publication Ltec. of 

 Quebec. Its object is to popularize for- 

 estry, to encourage reforestation and forest 

 protection, to develop local industries de- 

 pendent on the forest, to encourage the 

 proper use of the forest and the planting 

 of trees along the highways. Articles on 

 road maintenance, ornamental trees, uses 

 of wood, court decisions and legislation of 

 interest to owners of woodlands, and dis- 

 eases of trees make up the first number. 

 The magazine is illustrated and very well 

 gotten up. Its subscription price is $3.50 

 in the United States and $2.00 in Canada. 



The Dominion Forest Service is extend- 

 ing its experimental cooperative forest work 

 and many sample plots are being laid out 

 this season to determine the results of dif- 

 ferent methods of cutting in both conifer- 

 ous and hardwood stands. The result of 

 both clear and selection cutting on the re- 

 production will be studied and also how 

 much of the overwood in mixed and pure 

 stands should be removed to get the best 

 reproduction. Experiments will also be 

 tried by removing undesirable species and 

 trying to foster the growth of the more 

 desirable ones. Plots have also been laid 

 out in natural reproduction where the 

 young trees are thinned 'out to different dis- 

 tances apart to see what results can be ob- 

 tained. 



The purchase by the Hollingsworth and 

 Whitney Company of timber lands in 

 New Brunswick shows that .American in- 

 terests are looking to the future and buy- 

 ing lands in Canada to provide for the time 

 when their -American holdings shall become 

 exhausted. 



The Government Commission which has 

 been investigating the management of the 

 Department of Lands and Forests of On- 

 tario, has recommended a reorganization of 

 the Department on a business basis and. 

 Premier Drury is reported to have said 

 that such a reorganization would be made. 



The forest fire situation in British Co- 

 lumbia is the worst in years and the For- 

 estry Service is having a ve.ry difficult time 

 to get the fires under control. 



