52 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Canadian Department 



By Ellwood Wilson 



There was never a time when the senti- 

 ment for adequate protection of the for- 

 ests from fire was so strong in Canada as 

 at present The hand writing has begun 

 to appear on the wall and it would be 

 well if those in charge of and responsible 

 for the protection of this country's great 

 forest wealth would realize that this is no 

 political question that can be dallied with 

 and used as a means of getting votes, but 

 must be squarely and fearlessly faced. 

 The forests are the heritage of the people 

 and they will not see them destroyed. 

 They know where the responsibility lies 

 and will demand a strict accounting. 

 Those Provinces which are drawing the 

 bulk of their revenue from their forests 

 and doling out a mere pittance for fire 

 protection or are using the positions of 

 fire rangers for patronage had better begin 

 to wake up. 



This is a question which stockholders 

 of lumber companies, pulp and paper com- 

 panies, and all other wood working indus- 

 tries should look into. Are their dividends 

 being paid out of their forest capital? Are 

 their woodlands, the base on which all 

 such companies stand, being exploited to 

 provide cheap raw material for a few 

 years or are they being properly handled 

 and conserved for a continuous supply. 

 Bondholders demand that all buildings and 

 plants shall be kept insured. Do they 

 take care to see that the timber holdings 

 of issuing companies are properly pro- 

 tected against fire? If not they are poor 

 security. Banks should not accept as col- 

 lateral for loans timber limits which are 

 not properly protected and this means 

 that only those in British Columbia, New 

 Brunswick and Quebec and in the latter 

 Province only those patrolled by the Co- 

 operative Fire Protective Association. 



On the 2nd of December a meeting of 

 the St. Maurice Forest Protective Associa- 

 tion was held in Three Rivers to discuss 

 amendments necessary to make the fire 

 laws of Quebec effective. There were pres- 

 ent at this meeting the presidents or man- 

 agers of most of the Member Companies, 

 and the weak points in the present law 

 were thoroughly discussed and means, to 

 strengthen them carefully worked out. 

 The greatest difficulty in the law now is 

 that only a maximum fine of fifty dollars, 

 at the discretion of the magistrate, is pro- 

 vided for all infractions of the fire code, 

 with the result that flagrant offenders are 

 let off with a fine of one dollar. A case in 

 point is that of a man who confessed that 

 he set fire to the forest deliberately in 

 order to obtain work in putting it out and 

 the magistrate fined him five dollars and 

 costs, amounting to about fifteen dollars. 



The county magistrates regard infractions 

 of the fire laws so lightly that there should 

 be no option at all in regard to the fine, 

 which should be fixed by the statute and 

 imposed on every guilty person. It was 

 especially recommended that no one 

 should be allowed to set a fire for clearing 

 purposes, at any time between the first 

 of April and the fifteenth of November 

 without a permit from a fire ranger or 

 other Government official duly authorized 

 to issue them. This would in no way 

 affect the liberty of the farmer or put him 

 to any inconvenience, but would mean 

 that the ranger would be responsible and 

 would have to see that the burning tooK 

 place at a safe time and in a manner 

 to prevent the fire from spreading. There 

 is at present no way in which a fire 

 ranger can get help except by paying 

 whatever a man chooses to ask, and it was 

 suggested that every able-bodied man must 

 help fight fire when called on, by a duly 

 authorized ranger and for a reasonable 

 daily wage, under penalty of a fine. At 

 present no distinction is made by the 

 code between accidental and deliberate 

 setting of fires and the meeting felt that 

 this was unjust and that in cases where 

 it was proved that a man set a fire on 

 purpose the penalty should be a jail sen- 

 tence without the option of a fine. It 

 b ridiculous that a man who sets fire to 

 a small shed should be guilty of a serious 

 crime while he who sets fire to a tract of 

 forest, worth thousands of dollars, is only 

 guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a 

 fine of up to fifty dollars. It was felt that 

 this whole question of amendments to the 

 law should be carefully considered by all 

 those at interest and it was decided to 

 issue invitations to all those interested to 

 meet at the Hotel Windsor, Montreal, on 

 the fifteenth of December to discuss the 

 whole matter thoroughly and to decide en 

 the best way to present the matter to the 

 Government. 



On the 3rd of December the Dominion 

 Forests Products Laboratory at McGill 

 University in Montreal was formally 

 opened by the Minister of the Interior 

 before a distinguished gathering. An 

 inspection of the timber testing machines, 

 paper mill plant, museum and laboratories 

 was made, the whole declared formally 

 open and then lunch was served at the 

 Mount Royal Club at which the speakers 

 were the Hon. Minister of the Interior, 

 Chancellor Sir William Peterson of Mc- 

 Gill University, the Hon. Sydney Fisher, 

 ex-Minister of Agriculture; the President 

 of the Society of Chemical Industry, Dean 

 Baker of the New York State College of 

 Forestry, and Mr. R. H. Campbell, Direc- 

 tor of the Dominion Forestry Branch. This 



very important undertaking of the Domin- 

 ion Government will do much to aid closer 

 utilization and the elimination of waste in 

 the wood using industries and already they 

 are looking to it for information and help. 

 The installation is very complete and 

 modern and reflects great credit on Mr. R. 

 H. Campbell and Dr. Bates. The experi- 

 mental paper mill is very complete with 

 beaters, paper machine and all the necessary 

 accessories, there is a complete plant for 

 testing structural timbers, chemical labora- 

 tories, preserving plant, pathological and 

 microscopical laboratories and drafting and 

 photographical rooms. The laboratories 

 have been informally in operation for nearly 

 a year and much valuable work accom- 

 plished. 



Thirty-five per cent of the professional 

 foresters of Canada have already enlisted, 

 a better showing than that of any other 

 profession. 



The Canadian Forestry Association, 

 Commission of Conservation, Canadian 

 Timbermen's Association and the Cana- 

 dian Society of Forest Engineers, will all 

 hold their meetings in Ottawa, January 

 17th, 18th and 19th, and there will be a 

 joint banquet on one of these evenings. 



The New Brunswick Government will 

 decide in a very short time on a man who 

 will fill the position of Provincial Forester. 

 It is likely that a New Brunswick man will 

 be chosen and the work of inventorying 

 New Brunswick's forest resources will be 

 begun at once. 



In the development of the new hydro 

 electric plant of the Laurentide Co. some 

 ten miles of shore line have had to be 

 cleared off and the debris disposed of, and 

 advantage is being taken of this to experi- 

 ment in brush burning and it is hoped 

 some valuable information will be obtained. 

 All wood cut is sorted carefully so as to 

 get the greatest value from it, spruce, fir 

 and poplar is being used for pulp wood, 

 hemlock for ties, cedar for telephone and 

 fence posts, hard woods for saw timber and 

 fire wood. 



British Columbia Notes 

 The heavy orders for lumber for the 

 United Kingdom placed through the Pro- 

 vincial Government during the past sum- 

 mer as a result of the visit of Lumber Com- 

 missioner MacMillan to Europe show what 

 results can be obtained by Governmental 

 action in assisting the lumbering industry. 

 In order to follow up the advantage already 

 gained in this new line of work the Hon. 

 W. R. Ross announced that the Provincial 

 Government is sending a business repre- 

 sentative of the industry to London. 



Investigation has already shown that 

 before the European market can be entered, 

 on any scale, by our manufacturers a great 

 deal of preliminary work must be done in 



