1919-20 DEPARTMENT OF LANDS, FORESTS AND MINES. 115 



(5) Improvement Work. 



The character of the fire season permitted very little attention to new pro- 

 jects along the lines of improvement work. Time was found for very little tele- 

 phone, trail or cabin construction. The new headquarters buildings for the 

 Nipigon reserve were completed, an equipment storehouse built at Fort Frances, 

 and a combined storehouse and boathouse at Kenora. 



(6) Equipment. 



With the opening of this season steps were taken to have all equipment, such 

 as canoes, railway velocipedes, etc., and buildings painted the same colour and 

 after a uniform pattern. Also all equipment was stencilled " Ontario Forestry 

 Branch,^' and branded or stamped " 0. F. B." with steel letters. In addition, 

 all main articles of equipment such as canoes, boats, railway velocipedes, railway 

 motor cars, tents, etc., were numbered on a definite system, to facilitate keeping 

 records and to learn the life of different manufacturers' goods. 



The major equipment added this year included: fifty canoes, seven large 

 power boats, eighty tents, four hundred pairs of blankets, forty-five railway veloci- 

 pedes, three railway motor cars. 



The total equipment necessary for such a large organization requires the 

 maintenance of about $100,000 of stock. The Branch now has 10 Ford auto 

 trucks, 10 power cruisers (30 feet and over), 6 smaller power boats, 400 canoes 

 and small boats, 65 railway velocipedes, 8 railway motor cars, 430 tents, 2,000 

 pairs of blankets, 5 portable fire pumps with 7,700 feet of hose, besides very large 

 numbers of camp stoves, axes, shovels, tools, cooking utensils, etc. There is still 

 a shortage in spare equipment which should be on hand for emergency crews of 

 fire fighters. 



It may be in order to point out that provision for storage of such a large 

 equipment calls for much space. Considerable warehouse space is rented yearly, 

 but the following storehouses have been erected during the past three seasons : 

 Gowganda, Gogama, Bisco, Cochrane, Nipigon, Fort Frances, Kenora. In addition 

 to the above seven main storehouses, a number of boathouses, railway motor car 

 houses, truck garages, hose houses, etc., have been built. 



In addition to the usual quantity of fire signs, 12,000 calendars and 10,000 

 pencils with 10,000 rulers were sent out for educational effect. The calendars 

 were of two types, one specially designed for distribution in the Clay Belt, and 

 the other for tourist country. The pencils and rulers bearing appropriate fire 

 warnings were placed in all the northern schools. 



(7) Railway Inspection Under B. R. C. 



Two inspectors devoted their whole time to the inspection of fire protective 

 appliances on locomotives, because of the large percentage of fires of railway orijjin. 

 Tbe railway mileage through forest section in Ontario is very great, approximately 

 5,000 miles, and more locomotive inspections are made in this Province than in 

 the other provinces of Canada combined. A change wa^; made for the past season 

 in the basis of payment for inspection, with the result that 10 per cent, more 

 inspections than in 1918 were made in 80 per cent, of the time, so that the average 

 cost per inspection fell to $2.07 as compared with $2.59 in 1918. 



