Canadian Forestry Journal 



Vol. V. 



December, 1909. 



No. 4. 



Convention at Fredericton, Feb. 23rd and 24th. 



At the meeting of the directors of the 

 Association, noted in another part of 

 this issue, it was decided to accept the 

 invitation of the government of the 

 Province of New Brunswick to hold a 

 convention in Fredericton during the 



present season. It has since been de- 

 cided to hold the convention on Thurs- 

 day and Friday, Feb. 23rd and 24th. 



The regularannual meeting of the As- 

 sociation will be held in Ottawa March 

 10th and 11th, 1910. 



The Nova Scotia Forest Survey. 



The forest survey, or, rather, "re- 

 connaisance," of the province of Nova 

 Scotia (the inauguration of which was 

 noted in the June issue of the Forestry 

 Journal) was proceeded with during 

 the past summer, and satisfactory 

 progress was made, those counties west 

 of Hants being covered. Dr. Fernow 

 and his four assistants succeeded in 

 covering a total of about 8,500 square 

 miles in this first season of the work, 

 which will take another season to 

 complete. 



Cost, Object and Methods. 



The low cost of the survey is a point 

 especially noteworthy, the expenditure 

 per square mile averaging less than 

 twenty cents. 



A high degree of accuracy was not 

 aimed at, the object of the survey being 

 rather to furnish approximately correct 

 information regarding the character, 

 extent and condition of the province's 

 forest reserves. Such information, it 

 must be observed, even though but ap- 

 proximateh" correct, is vastly more 

 reliable than the haphazard guesses 

 that have up till now been the expres-' 

 sion of our knowledge of the extent 

 and value of Canadian woodlands. 



Five men were engaged in the survey 

 and each was left largely to himself, a 

 certain territory being a.s.signed him 



to cover by whatever means should 

 .seem best to him. In making investi- 

 gation as to the timber, etc., personal 

 inspection of the woodlands was supple- 

 mented by interviews with persons in 

 each locality who knew the condition 

 <jf certain parcels of timber. Much 

 valuable infonnation was obtained in 

 this way, the lumbermen especially 

 being very generous in giving informa- 

 tion. 



The survey plats of the Crown Lands 

 Department, on the .scale of two miles 

 to the inch, were used as the basis of 

 recording the forest survey. These were 

 found only fairly .satisfactory. Owing 

 to the fact that no system of ti'iangula- 

 tion has been establi.shed, difficulty was 

 found in tying new .surveys to defin- 

 itely located points. Moreover, the 

 surveyors in the field frequently made 

 "mistakes," such as locating the bound- 

 aries of a 100-acre grant of land to 

 enclose an area of ei.ght hundred acres. 

 It was indeed, often found difficult to 

 locate Crown lands at all, and much 

 land shown on the maps as the property 

 of the province did not exist. 



Points Noted. 



The information gathered was, as far 

 as pos.sible, plotted on the maps in the 

 field, colored pencils being used; num- 

 bers and letters were used to denote 



