154 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



posed regions some 200 rangers are placed on tiuty at a cost of approxi- 

 mately 180,000. The men are in general employed for five months, from 

 the commencement of May until the end of September, only a very 

 small number indeed being kept permanently on the staff, and these 

 chiefly in connection with the public parks. Undoubtedly during the 

 winter months the forests are immune from fire and the moisture in the 

 early spring eliminates, as a rule, any very serious danger in this direc- 

 tion, but it is to be observed that under the present arrangements the 

 forests are left practically without protection during October, during 

 which month in many years the danger of forest fires on a considerable 

 scale will have by no means disappeared, •so that it would seem that at 

 least a fair percentage of the men should be employed for some weeks 

 longer than at present, so long, at least, as the present system continues 

 in force, for the money spent during the five preceding months in for- 

 est protection will have practically been spent in vain if large areas 

 of valuable timber are destroyed after the rangers have left their beats. 



It cannot be doubted that with so vast an acreage of public forests 

 it would be economically sound to maintain a considerable permanent 

 staff of foresters, sufficiently well educated and seized of forest lore to 

 be able under scientific direction to look after the well-being of the for- 

 ests throughout the year, in addition to undertaking fire ranging duties 

 during the summer months. Such a corps could be augmented to the 

 required extent during the dangerous seasons, but by this means there 

 would, at least, always be on the ground a fair percentage of rangers 

 not only thoroughly acquainted with their beats, the most dangerous 

 localities and the quickest and easiest routes to any given point, but 

 versed and efficient in their duties of proved energy and discretion and 

 with a more or less personal interest in the particular tract of forest 

 over which they ranged. The presence, also, of such a corps in the event 

 of fire could not but be most advantageous, for the measures necessary 

 to extinguish it require to be co-ordinate and discharged under dis- 

 ciplined direction. Under the present system co-ordination is sadly 

 lacking; co-operation, as has been pointed out before, frequently impos- 

 sible; and discipline and direction, in the past at least, but all too fre- 

 quently non-existent. There would undoubtedly be no difficulty in fill- 

 ing the ranks of a permanent provincial forestry corps with suitable 

 men, for not only is the life attractive and interesting to many, but un- 

 questionably the creation of such a service would result in the broaden- 

 ing of the present educational facilities in the Province to fit men for 

 these posts, and in view of the experience of other and older countries 

 in the economic administration and exploitation of forests, the sooner 

 such a service is inaugurated in Ontario, the better it will be in regard 

 to the permanent interests of the public demesne. 



Perhaps the chief failing of the provincial fire ranging service in the 

 past has been its inability to place trustworthy physically and mentally 

 capable men on the various beats. Unfortunately the duties in many 



