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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



PRESIDENT, CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



TOURING the months of October, Novem- 

 ber and December, a co-operative ex- 

 periment was carried out by the Commis- 

 sion of Conservation, and the Logging and 

 Forestry Departments of the Laurentide 

 Company, Ltd.. under the direction of 

 R. W. Lyons, to determine as accurately 

 as possible what it costs to burn the limbs 

 and tops of conifers on an ordinary logging 

 operation. A camp was built about one- 

 half mile from the nearest point on the ex- 

 perimental plot which contains approxi- 

 mately 175 acres. This had been cut over 

 for white pine some years ago and was 

 made up of the following types : spruce- 

 balsam slope 27 per cent, black spruce 

 swamp 11 per cent, balsam-spruce ridge 57 

 per cent, and softwood-hardwood slope 5 

 per cent. The tract as a whole sloped 

 gently down to a swamp in the center. The 

 timber is generally mature and over-mature 

 in the 90 year age class and there is pres- 

 ent much evidence of the damage of in- 

 sects and fungi. In the order of their 

 presence the species are, balsam, white 

 spruce, black spruce, yellow birch, white 

 birch and white pine. Balsam formed about 

 64 per cent of the stand and was younger 

 and smaller than the spruce. The large 

 trees were unsound, particularly on the 

 ridges and in mixture with hardwoods. The 

 largest balsam cut was 16 inches in diame- 

 ter and 70 feet high. There was much 

 wind damage. 



The white spruce was not abundant but 

 had long clear boles and long compact 

 crowns. Some had attained a height of 80 

 feet and a diameter of 22 inches and were 

 from 100 to 130 years of age. 



The black spruce formed the stand in 

 swampy place but reached its best growth 

 on the higher ground, 60 feet, and a diame- 

 ter of 13 inches. The trees were limby and 

 the growth was decidedly slow. Repro- 

 duction on the tract was mostly balsam in 

 thickets where wind thrown trees had left 

 openings. 



French-Canadian labor was used, the 

 men receiving eighty dollars per month and 

 board, but even at this figure were hard 

 to keep. Camp conditions were a little 

 above the average. 



Clean cutting of the conifers in strips 

 was the method of cutting. The strips 

 were from one to three chains wide and 

 between them timber was left uncut for 

 a width of two chains. They were run at 

 right angles to the prevailing winds. The 

 slash on each alternate strip cut was burn- 

 ed. All logs were taken down to three 

 inches in diameter except on a small sec- 



tion where the logs below four inches were 

 left in order to see what the waste, utiliz- 

 ing to that diameter would amount to. 

 These tops were measured and counted and 

 the number of four foot pieces they would 

 make recorded and calculated in cords. 



The skidding was done by the Logging 

 Department and charges for men's time, 

 horse time and board were made against 

 the operation. 



A total of 14,588 thirteen and a half 

 foot logs was cut amounting to 500.2 cords 

 or 245,288 board feet, Quebec scale. The 

 brush from 172.1 cords was burnt, an extra 

 man being used for two felling crews. 

 The average cost per cord for the operation 

 where the brush was not burnt was $2.94 

 per cord, exclusive of skidding. Where 

 the brush was burnt $3.46, so that the aver- 

 age cost of burning brush was $1.15 per 

 cord or $2.30 per thousand feet. 



The average distance skidded was about 

 250 feet with a maximum of 550 feet. 



The costs are summarized as follows : 

 per cord per M 

 Felling, limbing and brush 



burning $1.93 $3.81 



Skidding 2.59 5.07 



Improvements 16 .31 



Depreciation 18 .36 



Transportation of men into 



woods 07 .14 



Supervision 49 .96 



Board 1.44 2.82 



Totals $6.87 $1347 



The price per cord for this operation is 

 no higher than for ordinary operations of 

 like character and had the skidding been 

 under the control of the man in charge the 

 cost would have been reduced. The charge 

 for supervision is very high as one trained 

 man spent all his time on it. Had he been 

 in charge of a whole district this item 

 would have been very materially reduced. 

 It is doubtful if the cost for burning could 

 be reduced as the men who did the work 

 had been previously accustomed to burn 

 their debris. The question of whether it 

 will pay to burn the debris from logging 

 can only be solved by continuing such ex- 

 periments as the above and studying the 

 lands so cut to see what the effect is on 

 reproduction, diminution of forest fires and 

 on insects and fungi. 



A lumberman who has been making a 

 tour of the cutting operations in Ontario, 

 reports that there seems to be a conspiracy 

 on the part of the employment agencies 

 sending men into the woods. The men 

 go in but only stay a few days, sometimes 



not more than one day, and in one case 

 where three gangs of six men each were 

 used it took an average of 12 men per day 

 coming in to keep the three gangs full. 

 The man who made the report said it look- 

 ed as if the agencies were splitting up the 

 fee obtained from the employers with the 

 "jumpers." He said conditions were bet- 

 ter in the camps than ever before and that 

 wages were high. 



Several of the lumbermen's associations 

 in Ontario have passed resolutions urging 

 that the management of the forests of 

 that Province should be placed entirely in 

 the hands of the Chief Forester and his 

 staff. 



Clyde Leavitt, Forester of the Commis- 

 sion of Conservation, is trying to get an 

 approximate estimate of the supplies of 

 pulpwood standing in Canada. He thinks 

 now that a liberal estimate would be, 

 Quebec 300 million cords, Ontario 200 

 million cords, New Brunswick 33 million 

 cords, Nova Scotia 30,000,000 cords and 

 British Columbia 255 million cords. Not 

 much information is available for the 

 Prairie Provinces. This makes a total of 

 818 million cords. The cut is about 2^ 

 million cords per year. Efforts are be- 

 ing made to find out where this timber is 

 located, that is how much there is which is 

 at present accessible and how much which 

 can only be reached when the price which 

 can be paid for it will cover the cost of 

 transportation. Estimates at present avail- 

 able are little more than the roughest kind 

 of guesses and should not be relied on. It 

 is certainly time to get some more accu- 

 rate inventory of our resources. The in- 

 crease in consumption is very rapid and 

 shows no signs of diminishing. 



Senior R. Codorniu, editor of Espana 

 Forestal, has just published a very inter- 

 esting book, which is a collection of articles 

 written by him from 1916 to 1918, en- 

 titled "Mas Bagatelas Forestries." 



Mr. Otto Schierbeck, a Danish forester, 

 who was from 1909 to 1917 in charge of 

 nursery work for the Danish Government, 

 and from then till the present in the nur- 

 sery business for himself, has just come 

 to Canada to settle. He described to the 

 writer the success they have had in Den- 

 mark in inocculating the moths of the white 

 pine weevil with a fungus and liberating 

 them to spread the disease. 



The Curtiss Aeroplane Company are 

 working on the designs for a flying boat 

 especially for forest patrol and mapping 

 work. This plane will probably be fitted 

 with two engines. 



