526 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



recent one, unless adequate preventive measure* are taken. 

 ( toe of the inducements held out to prospective 

 settlers in the Clay Belt of Northern Ontario has been 

 the opportunity to make good wages by cutting and 

 marketing pulpwood, thus making the operation of clear- 

 ing the land pay for itself. While this argument has 



started in large numbers for the purpose of clearing land 

 at any time the settler might choose. There is no adequate 

 provision for the regulation or control of such fires in 

 the Clay Belt, and real attention to their extinguishment 

 has been largely lacking until such action has been ren- 

 dered almost or quite too late by the occurrence of a 



been justified ta'cases where the class of timber is favor- prolonged hot, dry spell, such as took place during the 



able, and where the haul to the railway or drivable stream las. half of July. Only the occurrence of heavy rams 



, prevented 



i> not too long. 



there are other 



cases where the 



conditions are 



less favorable. 



In such cases, 



many of the 



settlers have 



shown an in- 

 clination to re- 

 gard the timber 



on land desired 



for cultivation 



as a liability 



instead of 



an asset. 



This con- 

 dition has led, 



perhaps nat- 

 urally, to the 



feeling on the 



part of many 

 that fires would 



be a blessing. 



since they 

 would hasten 



the day when 



large areas of 

 agricultural 

 land could be 

 placed under 



the plow. Also, 

 many pros- 

 pectors con- 

 sider fires a 

 distinct advan- 

 tage, since they lay bare the mineral soil, and thus facilitate 

 the discovery of valuable minerals. Whether rightly or 

 wrongly, the Porcupine fire of 1911 was attributed, at 

 least in part, to fires started by prosj>ectors with this object 

 in view. This attitude on the part of a proportion of the 

 resident population, particularly the settlers, would natu- 

 rally make it difficult for a government to take adequate 

 steps for the prevention and control of forest fires in that 

 section. It goes, of course, without saying, that no one really 

 contemplated such a holocaust as that which has just oc- 

 curred. As long, however, as no lives were lost or large 

 amounts of improved property destroyed, it is probably 

 safe to state that a considerable proportion of the popula- 

 tion of the Clay Belt regarded the occurrence of forest 

 fires with a good deal of equanimity. No particular 

 attention was paid to smouldering bush fires, which were 



Photograph by British and Colonial Press. Toronto. 



A TYPICAL GROUP OF REFUGEES WAITING ON THE PLATFORM AT E.NGLEHART 

 (Note Women and Small Family) 



Many of thcae not only lot all their property but a number mourn the loss of relatives and several of them escaped 



by teeming miracles. 



the 

 fires from as- 

 suming the 

 proportions of 

 a much greater 

 calamity 

 than actually 

 took place. 



It must not 

 be understood 

 that Ontario is 

 giving no at- 

 tention to the 

 matter of for- 

 est-fire protec- 

 tion. On the 

 contrary, a 

 large amount 

 of money is 

 being spent an- 

 nually on this 

 work. The 

 system has, 

 however, a 

 number of vital 

 weaknesses. 



The Do- 

 minion For- 

 estry Branch 

 estimates that 

 Ontario has 70 

 million acres of 

 land capable of 

 yielding mer- 

 chantable tim- 

 ber, or one-half 

 the total area of the province. Of this, about 13 million 

 acres are included in provincial parks and forest reserves, 

 and about 10 million acres are under license to cut timber 

 under specified conditions, the land itself remaining the 

 property of the Crown. Some of the timber limits being 

 within forest reserves or parks, it is safe to estimate that 

 there are something like 50 million acres of unlicensed 

 Crown timber land not included in parks or reserves, and 

 exclusive of non-productive areas. There is very little tim- 

 ber land in private ownership in the province of Ontario. 

 The annual revenue which the province receives from 

 timber licenses amounts to upwards of $1,500,000 annu- 

 ally. The holders of timber licenses are required to pro- 

 vide and pay the necessary staff of fire rangers on 

 licensed lands, subject to supervision by the provincial 

 authorities. Protection on other Crown lands is to be 



