140 REPOET OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



not be questioned that an annually materially increasing revenue would 

 result, more than sufficient amply to provide for a forestry service 

 adequate to the needs and worthy of the Province. That such a service 

 is needed is beyond dispute. A vast field is open to scientific research 

 and management throughout the forests, to the reforestration of burnt 

 areas and to seeding or planting in sections barren of trees, and an 

 equally vast field to the organization of a staff, not only capable of 

 enforcing such laws and regulations as may be in force, but able, also, 

 to cope successfully with disease and fire wheresoever they may occur. 



. ' Forest Fires. 



Almost every year there has, unfortunately, to be recorded some 

 material damage to the forests of the Province through the destructive 

 agency of fires, and all too frequently there is chronicled in accompani- 

 ment the loss of other valuable property, occasionally, even, of human 

 lives. The terrible forest fires which occurred in several of the western 

 States of the Union during the summer of 1910 would alone have been 

 sufficient to mark the year as disa'strous in this respect and to have 

 called widespread attention to the danger of allowing confiagrations of 

 this nature to outstrip the possibilities of human control, but, as though 

 this was not sufficient, the fires which had raged in the western por- 

 tions of the Province and across the border in that vicinity intermit- 

 tently throughout the summer months, suddenly sprang into renewed 

 life in Minnesota in the early fall and, swept forward by a powerful 

 wind, carried death and destruction before them right to the provincial 

 borders, where in spite of the protection of the broad Rainy River men 

 had to labour both day and night to save provincial habitations and 

 enterprises from utter annihilation. The appalling suddenness of this 

 holocaust and its proximity to the Province brought the disastrous 

 nature of it closely home to the citizens of Ontario, and it cannot be 

 doubted afforded an excellent object lesson of the inexpediency of 

 penurious provision for the protection of the forests against fire. 



To the average man, no doubt, the reading of the destruction of 

 miles of standing forests conveys but little of its true significance. He 

 can hardly appreciate the gigantic figures arrayed before him as to the 

 square feet of timber burnt or the estimated value of the same in mil- 

 lions of dollars. He may, perhaps, be aghast at the loss of life or suffer- 

 ing and hardships endured by those who were fortunate enough to 

 escape the flames. He may even dimly realize that these people have 

 lost their homes, their possessions, their all. But the effects on nature 

 are as a closed book to him. He has not seen; he cannot understand. 



The stately forest, stretching unbroken for miles, harbours count- 

 less wild animals, birds and insects. Life, indeed, is seething in it. The 

 soil on which it stands is nursed and enriched by its fallen foliage and 

 trees, which in many instances cover even the bare rocks sufficiently 



