100 



The Canadian Forestry Journal, 



in former years sold the fee simple on 

 such lands as were disposed of, retains 

 ownership to only one and one-half 

 million acres, most of it probably of 

 inferior character, while lumber con- 

 cerns control about two million acres. 



The information obtained will be laid 

 down on the Land Office survey plats, 

 drawn to the scale of two inches to the 

 mile, insuring tolerably accurate loca- 

 tion. 



F jDr. Fernow will have four assistants, 

 namely, Dr. C. D. Howe, Lecturer in 

 the Faculty of Forestry; Mr. J. H. 

 White, M.A., B.S.F., who has just 

 graduated from the Faculty; Mr. H. B. 

 Ayres, one of Dr. Fernow's former as- 

 sistants in Washington, who has wide 



experience in this class of work, and 

 the Chief Ranger of the province; all 

 fire rangers and deputy surveyors will 

 aid the party in the field in their respec- 

 tive districts. 



It is hoped that this work will prove 

 so valuable as to stimulate other 

 provinces to follow the example. 



Hon. W. T. Pipes, Attorney-General 

 and Commissioner of Lands for Nova 

 Scotia, visited Toronto on June 7th 

 and arranged the details of the survey 

 with Dr. Fernow. While in Toronto 

 Mr. Pipes met Hon. Frank Cochrane, 

 Minister of Lands, Forests and Mines, 

 and compared notes with him as to 

 forestry problems in the two provinces. 



Forest Fires of May and June. 



The forest's arch-enemy, fire, has 

 been much in evidence during the spring 

 months of 1909. From nearly all the 

 provinces of the Dominion come reports 

 of large fires and much loss, the most 

 serious of these coming from New Bruns- 

 wick, though Nova Scotia and British 

 Columbia were the first to report fires. 



Despatches of May 5th report the 

 first ^serious fire of the season; these 

 were" from Kamloops, B.C. The area 

 burned over extended from Notch Hill 

 east to Three Valley and from Sicamous 

 south to Vernon. "It is the old story," 

 remarks a British Columbia paper, com- 

 menting on the occurrence, "a few bush 

 fires smoulder for days unheeded by 

 anyone, and a fierce wind fans them 

 into a flame that gets beyond control." 

 Three large fires had been burning for 

 days ''and a strong wind fanned the 

 flames and tinited the three fires into 

 one. Newspaper estimates put the loss 

 at about $500,000. In the destruction 

 of the Carlin mill, near Notch Hill, 

 was involved the loss of $75,000, and 

 $35,000 loss was caused by the bummg 

 of the Carrigan mill on Salmon River. 

 Scores of settlers and ranchers were 

 burned out. In the White Valley, 

 around Lumby and Blue Springs, there 

 was also a serious fire which burned 

 out several ranchers. 



On May 14th a fire, supposed to have 

 started from fire left by a party of 

 campers in brush land, began at Four 



Mile Lake, twenty-five miles east of 

 Annapolis Royal, N.S., and, fanned by 

 a stift" westerly wind, burned over hun- 

 dreds of acres of timberlands, valued 

 at many thousand dollars. The burned 

 district was between four and five miles 

 in length and varied in width from a 

 quarter of a mile to over a mile. Some 

 of the finest young timber in Annapolis 

 County is said to have been destroyed. 

 The fire ranging system of Nova Scotia 

 proved its worth in coping with this 

 fire. 



At Lac Brochet, Que., $25,000 dam- 

 age was done by a fire which started a 

 few feet from the right of way of the 

 National Transcontinental Railway and 

 had its origin, it was thought, in a camp- 

 fire left unextinguished by a party of 

 Italians in search of work on the rail- 

 way. The fire extended for about two 

 miles and several camps were burned 

 up. The Leroux saw-mill and several 

 millions of feet of lumber were saved 

 only after hard work. 



The town of Dalton, Mich., was re- 

 ported to be destroyed by a fire, and 

 near Aurora and Calumet, in that state, 

 fires were raging. 



During the early part of June the 

 chief centre of forest fires was the 

 Province of New Brunswick. Even 

 during the last few days of May a 

 number of fires had been 'reported to 

 the Crown Lands Office, most of which 

 had not assumed serious proportions. 



