114 



Canadian Forestry Journal. 



reducing their exports and soon would 

 have no timber to send ovit. There was 

 a balance of from two to three billion 

 feet per year which Europe must get 

 from outside. The United States had a 

 stand of about two thousand billion feet 

 and was using up about one hundred 

 million feet per year. Now, if one 

 divided a hundred into two thousand, 

 he would see that the United States 

 would not travel very far before it came 

 to a shortage. When that time came 

 the demands in our country would also 

 have greatly increased. Canada's pre- 

 sent production of timber was not 

 more than one-tenth that of the United 

 States, but if she reached, as she would 

 reach before long, a population such as 

 the United States had, her forests would 

 not last very long. Canada should begin 

 at the present time to preserve what she 

 had, and the establishment of forest 

 reserves was a step in that direction. 



Fire was the most serious menace to 

 the forest; this year, however, but one 

 serious fire, that at He la Crosse, had 

 occurred. The forests were meant to be 

 used, and would produce more if pro- 

 perly handled. "The Pines" reserve 

 could, by proper management, be made 

 to give again a suppl)' of fuel to the 

 surrounding country. The reserves 

 were also a source of water supply, and, 

 in the case of the Cypress Hills, of hay. 

 Some, such as the Moose Mountain 

 Reserve, "were also valuable as pleasure 

 resorts. 



Mr. E. F. T: Brokovsky, of Battle- 

 ford, noted the fact that along Turtle 

 River and Lake, northwest of Battle- 

 ford, a large area of timber existed, 

 which ought to be reserved. Years ago 

 he had got timber from there for bridge- 

 building, and the C. N. R. were depend- 

 ing on the district for ties for their line 

 to Jackfish Lake and beyond. 



Mr. Knechtel gave a resume of the 

 work done on the reserves this year. In 

 the Turtle Mountain Reserve a road 

 twenty-five miles long had been made 

 along the southern boundary to serve 

 as fire line and for transporting men, etc. 

 In the Sprucewoods Reserve the C. N. R. 

 had ploughed a fire guard on both sides 

 of their right-of-way, and the C. P. R. 

 on the south side of theirs. Fire pro- 

 tection was the great need on the re- 

 serves, planting being comparatively 

 unimportant. A road was being made 

 entirely round the Riding Mountain 



Reserve, others around the Duck 

 Mountain and Lake Manitoba West 

 Reserves. Similar work was being done 

 on the Cypress Hills Reserve. There 

 was an immense amount of timber on 

 the eastern slope of the Rocky Mount- 

 ains to be protected. The forest should 

 be cleared of all dead timber and debris. 

 This would prevent fires almost entirely 

 and could be done at a cost of $5 per 

 acre, while replanting woiJd cost $12 per 

 acre. The settler's lumbering was the 

 worst in the world. The speaker and 

 Mr. W. I. Margach, of Calgary, were 

 devising a scheme of cutting over a 

 section under forestry methods — e.g., 

 cutting low stumps, taking out tops, 

 destroying debris and cutting only 

 mature timber — and so ascertaining the 

 actual cost. 



Mr. W. A. Davis, of Dauphin, Man., 

 Chief Forest Ranger for Manitoba, urged 

 extensions to the Porcupine and Duck 

 Lake Reserves. On the Riding Mount- 

 ain Reserve, he remarked, 187 miles 

 of road were cut in 1908 and 200 more 

 would be completed this year. 



Mr. Wm. Sifton, Ranger on the 

 Porcupine Reserve, pointed out exten- 

 sions which should be made to the Por- 

 cupine Reserve. He protested against 

 allowing construction companies to 

 cut timber, en account of the waste 

 they made — a waste not made by the 

 manufacturing lumbermen. 



The Protection of Game. 



Mr. J. P. Turner, Secretary of the 

 Manitoba Fish and Game Protective 

 Association, was then called on for the 

 first paper on this subject. After speak- 

 ing at some length of man's battle against 

 primitive nature, his consequent de- 

 struction of the wild things, plant and 

 animal, and the progress in civilization 

 which followed this first stage, Mr. 

 Turner alluded to the over-cutting of 

 Canada's forests and the evil con- 

 sequences that must ensue, and con- 

 tinued: — 



Intimately associated with it (the 

 forest) and only second in importance to 

 the question of the perpetuation and 

 reproduction of our forests stands the 

 question of the preservation of wild life. 

 It might be said that the most striking 

 and melancholy feature in connection 

 with the wild animals and birds of 

 America is the rapidity with which they 

 have vanished; and in view of the fact 



