44 Canadian Forestry journal 



the present demand for the products of our forests will be in- 

 definitely maintained— nothing more probable than that it 

 will be greatly increased. 



In view, then, of the desirability of caring for the forests 

 as a sound business proposition from the standpoint of direct 

 financial returns and its necessity from the standpoint of wood 

 production and water conservation, I submit that no time 

 could be more opportune than the present for the inauguration 

 of a national forest policy having for its object the conservation 

 of the forests by wise use. 



Forest Protection. 



In this forest policy first place must of course be given to 

 forest protection and more particularly to the prevention of 

 forest fires, for without reasonable safety in this regard there 

 can be no forest management. Considerable progress has al- 

 ready been made by several Provinces in this matter, but every- 

 where much remains to be done. Further progress is needed 

 along three lines, namely: 



Improved fire laws. 



More efficient administration of the fire laws, and the 



Disposal of debris incident to lumbering operations. 



Nova Scotia has at present the best fire law though it is 

 in some respects surpassed by that of New Brunswick, and 

 Ontario has the most efficient administration. 



Practicability of Disposing of Debris. 



In the report of the Ontario Bureau of Forestr}- for 1904 

 I have discussed in detail the practicability of burning the debris 

 incident to lumbering operations in pineries. I shall only repeat 

 here that it has been demonstrated that a good clean job of 

 brush burning may be done on pine lands at a cost varying ac- 

 cording to local circumstances of from 12 to 25 cents per M. 

 feet, board measure, of the timber cut. Whether a similar 

 burning of the brush on spruce lands be also practicable has 

 not yet been demonstrated by any fair test on a commercial 

 scale. I submit, however, that the making of such a test is 

 one of the most urgent duties of the Provinces selling pulp- 

 wood stumpage. It will pay any Province vastly better to take 

 ten or fifteen cents less per cord for its pulpwood and secure 

 the safety and advantage to reproduction which goes with the 

 burning of the debris than to secure the utmost present cash 

 return and leave the areas cut over for pulpwood in the deplor- 

 able and menacing condition which is to-day characteristic 

 of Canadian pulpwood slashings. 



It need scarcely be added that the state rather than the 



