166 



Canadian Forestry Journal. 



(Ribes) plants, wild and cultivated, 

 within a distance of one hundred yards 

 from any of these trees are to be de- 

 stroyed by pulling up or cutting out, 

 as necessary. These and all other in- 

 fected or suspected plants are to be de- 

 stroyed by burning. Cultivated cur- 



rants and gooseberries are to be closely 

 inspected, especially after July 15th, 

 while suspected plantings of white pine 

 are to be carefully inspected between 

 May 10th and June 10th. These 

 measures have already been put into 

 force, and some effective work done. 



A Year's Work in Federal Forests. 



"The work of the Forest Service of 

 the United States is spoken of in the 

 highest terms of praise and with good 

 reason, but it may be pointed out that, 

 although the extent of Canada is not 

 less than that of the United States, the 

 forest service of the latter has an ap- 

 propriation of $4,640,000 and a per- 

 manent staff of over 2,000, while the 

 Canadian forest service has an appro- 

 priation of $100,000 and a permanent 

 staff of about forty. If the Canadian 

 people wish a service equally efficient 

 with that of the United States, they 

 must be prepared to deal much more 

 generously with it than they do now." 



The foregoing words form part of the 

 introduction to the report of the Do- 

 minion Superintendent of Forestry 

 (Mr. R. H. Campbell), which forms part 

 of the 1909 report of the Department of 

 the Interior, lately laid before Parlia- 

 ment. In addition to the forestry work 

 proper the Forestry Branch has charge 

 of the irrigation work and the national 

 parks. 



Frotection of the forests from 

 Fire. 



The main divisions of the forestry 

 work carried on are the protection of 

 the forests from fire, work on the forest 

 reserves and work in tree planting on 

 the prairies. At present the protection 

 of the forests from fire is accomplished 

 by means of rangers, who patrol their 

 respective districts, discover and ex- 

 tinguish fires and warn travellers and 

 residents of the danger of setting fires. 

 While the season of 1908 was excep- 

 tionally dry and the risk from fire cor- 

 respondingly great, few serious fires 

 occurred on Dominion lands. The most 

 serious fires were at Salmon Arm, Man- 

 son Creek and White Lake, in British 

 Columbia, and in the valley of the Spray 

 River in Alberta. For the British Co- 



lumbia fire, squatters on timber berths 

 were chiefly responsible and in one case 

 carelessness on the part of a lumber 

 company was a partial cause. For the 

 Spray valley fire the carelessness of 

 tourists was responsible. By the British 

 Columbia fires 200,000 feet, board 

 measure, of timber was destroyed and 

 10.000,000 feet damaged. The Spray 

 valley fire burned about ,3,000,000 feet 

 of timber. 



The total number of rangers em- 

 ployed during the season of 1908 was 

 82, as coinpared with 47 during the 

 season of 1907. A special patrol was 

 maintained along the line of the G.T.P. 

 and no serious fire occurred there. Ad- 

 ditional rangers were employed north 

 of The Pas, in the country north of 

 Prince Albert and on the Peace and the 

 Great Slave Rivers. Despite this ex- 

 tension, however, there is the most 

 pressing need of protecting the forests 

 of the great Northern Forest Belt, a 

 district reaching from Hudson Bay to 

 the Rocky Mountains (a distance of 

 1,000 mile's), and from 300 to 600 miles 

 wide; there is also great need of the 

 same along the many lines of railway 

 projected into the northern country. 



Forest Surveys. 



The need of a survey of this Northern 

 Forest Belt is also dwelt vipon. All this 

 area is more or less forested and the 

 forest is of great value for local con- 

 sumption. While along certain lines of 

 travel the country has been explored, 

 large areas are entirely unknown and 

 more definite knowledge of these is im- 

 perative in order to secure its proper 

 administration and management. Mr. 

 Campbell calculates that an explorq- 

 tion of this forest belt, similar to the 

 one made in 1900 by the Ontario 

 Government of the northern part of that 

 province, could be made for $200,0 



