38 Canadian Forestry Journal 



In 1901 a system of forest patrol and guardianship on 

 Dominion lands was started which has been somewhat extended 

 since. I cannot give details of the system; suffice to say that 

 rangers are assigned certain territory where it is deemed their 

 work is most required. Each of these men is under the super- 

 vision of someone in the district, usually the head forest ranger, 

 crown timber agent, or someone known to the Department. 

 It is the duty of this supervising officer to instruct the ranger 

 when to start work and when to quit and to certify to his time 

 of service before his account is paid. In case of a dangerous 

 fire starting, which requires more men to control it, the ranger 

 has authority to engage such men for that particular purpose. 



During the past season we had about forty regular rangers 

 employed, principally in the Railway Belt in British Columbia, 

 along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, along the North 

 Saskatchewan River and country north of that river, along the 

 Athabasca, and in the wooded districts of Manitoba and Sas- 

 katchewan. 



As to the result of such a service, the railway belt in British 

 Columbia furnishes the best example. Prior to the adoption 

 of the fire service five years ago, there was annual destruction 

 of large quantities of merchantable timber, while during the past 

 five years practically none has been lost, notwithstanding that 

 they have had a succession of very dry summers, and outside 

 of this railway belt hundreds of millions of feet of magnificent 

 timber have been destroyed. 



No better investment of public funds can be conceived 

 of than in this protective service. What town or city would 

 be guilty of such folly as to refuse to afford some system of 

 protection against fire for its buildings, and why should the 

 nation fail to take similar precautions to protect its own forest 

 property? The buildings in a town or city can be replaced 

 in a year while a century or more would be required for the 

 restoration of a forest. 



Within the past year the Forestry Branch has started 

 making a careful examination of the forest reserves, and it is 

 the intention to continue this work till we have a complete 

 knowledge of the timber on them, the quantity, varieties and 

 quality, rate of growth, etc., with a view of removing the dead 

 and down timber and harvesting the full grown crop and foster- 

 ing a permanent reproduction. It is also hoped to be able to 

 employ expert men in the examination of other timber areas, 

 in order to obtain information as to what areas it is desirable 

 to further set aside as reserves. 



One difficulty in our work is to know what we have. We 

 know practically nothing of our timber and other natural 

 resources extending over a large proportion of our possessions. 



