CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



121 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



SECRETARY, CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



where the "whiz-bangs" are conspicuous 

 almost continually. Our work seems to be 

 to finish clearing up a hardwood forest 

 which was recently operated by the Huns." 



The week of February 4 to 9 will be 

 a field week for forestry in Canada. On 

 the fifth, the Canadian Lumbermen's As- 

 sociation will hold its annual meeting, on 

 the sixth, the Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion and the Canadian Society of Forest 

 Engineers, on the morning of the seventh 

 there will be a conference to discuss the 

 substitution of wood for coal during the 

 shortage and the business meetings of the 

 forest protective associations of Quebec 

 and in the afternoon the first meeting of 

 the newly formed Woodlands Section of 

 the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association. 

 The eighth there will be a general forestry 

 conference on fire and other kinds of pro- 

 tection at which experts on different lines 

 will speak and discussions will be held. All 

 who are interested in the various phases of 

 forestry work are cordially invited to be 

 present. 



The Hon. Richard Turner, President of 

 the Quebec Forest Protective Association, 

 died the week before Christmas and his 

 loss will be keenly felt. He was an en- 

 thusiastic advocate of good fire protection 

 and took a deep interest in the work. 



Several meetings of the Quebec Forest 

 Protective Association were held during 

 the past month to discuss the closer federa- 

 tion and better organization of the four 

 protective associations of the Province and 

 the improvement of fire fighting methods. 

 It is hoped during the coming season to 

 introduce many improvements and make the 

 associations much more efficient. There 

 are still a few limit holders, who through 

 false economy or selfishness still continue 

 a menace to their neighbors through in- 

 adequate protection of their lands. One 

 large firm in particular is the worst offend- 

 er, together with certain American con- 

 cerns, and it is hoped that they will aban- 

 don their selfish and unpublic-spirited at- 

 titude before the coming season opens. 



The interest in forestry in general in 

 Canada continues to grow. During the 

 last month the St. James Literary Society 

 of Montreal had a forestry evening and 

 the Canadian Forestry Association gave 

 an illustrated lecture on banking in its 

 relations to forestry before the Canadian 

 Banker's Association in Montreal and it 

 is planned to hold such meetings in other 

 cities. 



over the operations of the Forestry Di- 

 vision of the Laurentide Company and to 

 advise about improvements in cost keep- 

 ing methods. 



Mr. Clyde Leavitt, Forester to the Do- 

 minion Railways Commission, has aban- 

 doned his annual trip to the West to take 

 charge of studies on the best way to en- 

 courage the use of wood to replace coal 

 and methods of obtaining an adequate sup- 

 ply. Prices of wood are very high this 

 winter owing to shortage of labor and the 

 long hauls necessary. When farmers, who 

 have no work for themselves and their 

 teams during the winter, go out and cut 

 a few loads of wood to sell in the nearest 

 town they can do so quite cheaply, but if 

 anyone attempts at the present time to 

 cut cord-wood either by the cord or by 

 day labor, it is practically impossible to 

 do it for the same price as charged by the 

 farmer. The question of the fuel short- 

 age brings into prominence the necessity of 

 educating the farmers as to the necessity of 

 caring properly for their woodlots and 

 keeping them stocked. In the Province of 

 Quebec and generally throughout Canada, 

 the settlers have cleared their lots too 

 much, without keeping the rougher por- 

 tions wooded, and have also allowed the 

 fires to run over the rougher slopes, burn- 

 ing off the soil and making it impossible 

 to re-establish forest growth. The result 

 is that in a country preeminently fitted for 

 the growth of timber, fire wood is grow- 

 ing somewhat scarce and the prices are con- 

 tinually rising owing to the long hauls 

 which are necessary. Then too, there are 

 large quantities of wood of inferior quali- 

 ty which should be cut to make way for 

 more valuable species and which could well 

 be sold for a lower price but which peo- 

 ple in general will not use, demanding al- 

 ways the very best quality, leaving the 

 other to rot on the ground. There is no 

 question that for the proper management 

 of our forests and woodlots the public 

 must be educated to pay higher prices for 

 all wood products ; for better manage- 

 ment, management which is urgently de- 

 manded by the public interest, costs more 

 money than the old methods and owners 

 cannot be expected to undertake it unless 

 with the co-operation of the general public. 



Professor Chandler, of Cornell Universi- 

 ty, made a trip to Grand Mere, to look 



An interesting extract from a letter from 

 Sergeant S. H. Clark: 



"I am attached to a Forestry Draft, 

 though I think it rather incorrectly named. 

 We are located close to the firing line 



In Alberta, under Mr. E. H. Finlayson, 

 during the past season, the fire season was 

 bad during the latter part of September. 

 The season on the whole was a dangerous 

 one, the two most serious fires being 

 the McLaren fire on the Crow, and the- 

 Solomon fire on the Athabasca. The form- 

 er covered an area of 1,598 acres of which 

 913 acres was merchantable, 181 acres cut- 

 over land, 504 acres unmerchantable tim- 

 ber. The total timber burnt is estimated 

 at 7,160,000 board feet. 



A letter from Mr. Dickson, of the Do- 

 minion Forest Service, now at the front, 

 says: "After training all summer on the 

 guns, siege artillery, I was lately transfer- 

 red to this corps at the request of the Gen- 

 eral in charge. Have been here for less 

 than a week, at the Forestry Corps head- 

 quarters, getting wise to the ropes, their 

 methods of estimating timber and the 

 amount of silviculture, if any, that is prac- 

 ticed in the operations under way, both 

 here in Britain and in France. Altogether 

 we may have before long 20,000 men at 

 work, and you can imagine what such a 

 mob of well-supervised lumber jacks are 

 turning out a few cubic feet of lumber and 

 pit props every month. It is tremendous 

 the amount of material required at the 

 front for constructing bridges and cor- 

 duroy gun-pits and emplacements, military 

 railways, hospital stations and huts, and in 

 the endless reaches and ramifications of 

 trenches. Do you know that they haven't 

 even gotten a basis establishment yet for 

 forestry in this old 'Old Country' (Eng- 

 land). That is to say, there seems never 

 to have been any systematic land classifica- 

 tion attempted. There is a great deal of 

 timber growing on the land which will 

 more profitably grow food crops, and there 

 are large areas on which farming is being 

 attempted, or at least pasturing, which is 

 absolute forest land. At present our skill- 

 ed Canadian woodsmen are only employed 

 in the actual cutting and conversion of the 

 timber taken over by the Corps, and the 

 final cleaning up of the fuel wood and 

 slash is left to be done as a secondary op- 

 eration by the relatively inefficient labor of 

 Portuguese, or of Hun prisoners, or of 

 'Couchys,' men whose time has a value 

 which is somewhat reminiscent of the story 

 of Jim Hill's hogs." 



The Forestry Companies in France have 

 greatly impressed the French with their 

 speed and efficiency, though their methods 

 are careless when compared with the 

 French practice. The experience of our 

 lumbermen in French managed forests 

 should make a difference in their attitude 

 on their return to Canada. 



