1921-22 



DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND FORESTS 



213 



Average Number of Railway Fires per Hundred Miles of Line. 



Railway 



1922 



1921 



Canadian National Railway (exclusive of northern lines) 



Canadian Pacific Railway 



Canadian National Railway (northern transcontinental line only) 



Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway 



Algoma Eastern Railway 



Algoma Central and Hudson Bay Railway 



Grand Trunk Railway 



Total 



3.3 



3.7 



Lightning was reported as having started 52 fires, or 5.1 per cent, of the 

 total number. Of this total 29 were in the Algonquin District. 



Logging operations were credited with having started 42 fires, or 4.1 per 

 cent, of the total, and 8 fires were due to miscellaneous causes. 



A total of 1,021 fires were reported, with an area burned of 346,193 acres, 

 the lowest figures since 1918. Of this total, 539 fires or 52.8 per cent., were 

 confined to areas of 5 acres or less in extent, and 78.3 per cent, of the total to 

 areas of 100 acres or less. The fires which burned areas of more than 500 acres 

 were almost entirely in logged-over regions where the logging slash made fire 

 fighting almost impossible. 



CLASSIFICATION OF BURNED-OVER AREA. 



As is shown in the above table, the area of timber land burned over was 

 13.4 per cent, of the total area burned. While the per cent, of the total is about 

 the same as in 1921, the area was only 46,395 acres as against 99,104 acres in 

 1921. 



Land which had been cut over, but upon which there was still some timber 

 standing, totalled 70,109 acres, or 20.2 per cent, of the total, and land upon which 

 some young growth existed totalled 87,123 acres, or 25.2 per cent, of the total, 

 while in 1921 these figures were respectively 190,977 acres, or 25.5 per cent, and 

 151,700 acres, or 20.2 per cent. The need of protection on these two classes of 

 land can not be too strongly emphasized, as it is to just such land that we must 

 look for our next timber crop. 



The area of barren and grass land burned totalled 142,566 acres, while in 

 1921 the total was 307,753 acres. 



