Notes. 



173 



Notes. 



Timber In a report by W. Thi- 



Resources baudeau, C.E., to the 



OF THE Surveyor General of 



Winnipeg the Dominion of Can- 



Basin. ada, reference is made 



to the pulp wood re- 

 sources in the drainage basin of the 

 Winnipeg River in Manitoba. Mr. 

 Thibaudeau repoi'ts as follows ; — 



"The drainage basin of Winnipeg 

 River in Manitoba, exclusive of 10 

 miles on both sides of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railwaj" right-of-way, and ex- 

 clusive of the farming lands, has an 

 area of about 1,840 square miles, which 

 added to the drainage basin of English 

 River, in Keewatin, which joins Winni- 

 peg River east of the boundary and 

 covers an area of 9,500 square miles, 

 forms a total of 11, .340 square miles. 

 Assuming about half this area to be 

 covered by rivers, lakes and swamps, 

 the balance, .5,670 square miles, or 

 3,628,000 acres, is forest, averaging 20 

 cords to the acre; this equals 72,576,000 

 cords of pulp wood, which is'a conserva- 

 tive estimate. Assuming this to be 

 equal to a supply for twenty years, it 

 would allow a consumption of 3,628,800 

 cords per year, or about 3,000,000 tons 

 of pulp, or 9,615 tons per day, which 

 would require about 500,000 horse 

 power to con\'ert it into pulp. 



"Within the area alluded to the pro- 

 portion of pulp wood from my own ob- 

 servations and information gathered 

 from many sources is about as follows: 

 Poplar, 55 per cent.; spruce, balsam 

 and tamarack, 25 per cent.; jackpine 

 and a few white birch, 20 per cent. 

 Poplar is found mostly along the rivers 

 and lakes on the fiats. As one goes in- 

 land spruce, balsam and tamarack take 

 the place of poplar. Jackpine is found 

 on rocky ridges. The present size of the 

 timber is a growth of about twenty 

 years. Outside the pulp area already 

 described, but tributary to Winnipeg 

 and English Rivers in Ontario, there 

 are 12,000 to 15,000 square miles of the 

 same kind of wood, existing under the 

 same conditions, and which would 

 average about the same per acre. 



"To preserve the pulp wood industry 

 it is imperative that stringent regula- 

 tions should be adopted and enforced 

 prohibiting the cutting of trees under 



a certain size, say 3 inches in diameter. 

 The owner of the timber berth should 

 not be allowed to cut over the same 

 area twice in twenty years, except in 

 special cases. I saw only two places 

 where the timber had been destroyed 

 by fire. Although the country is rough, 

 it would be easy to construct a railway 

 logging road at a reasonable cost. Log- 

 ging with teams would have to be done 

 in winter owing to the swampy char- 

 acter of a portion of the ground." 



A Useful The Department of 



Booklet. Lands and Forests of 



the Province of Quebec 

 has lately issued a pamphlet entitled 

 "A Treatise on the Protection of Forests 

 from Fire," of which the authors are 

 Messrs. W. C. J. Hall and B. L. O'Hara, 

 Superintendent and Assistant Super- 

 intendent, respectively, of the Bureau of 

 Forestry of that Province. The book 

 is intended for distribution to forest 

 rangers, the clergy, municipalities and 

 others. After a short introduction 

 treating of the necessity of the forests 

 to a country and the uses of woodlands, 

 the causes of forest fires, especially those 

 along railways, are discussed. The 

 pre^'ention and fighting of fires are 

 taken up, prominent topics being fire- 

 breaks and back-firing. The use of 

 telephones is noted with approval and 

 short description given of the "Look- 

 out Station" system as used in Maine. 

 Full instructions are given to fire 

 rangers. The progress of a fire is 

 graphicallv described from an actual 

 instance. A number of half-tone cuts 

 make the booklet more interesting and 

 attractive. 



Proposed At the approaching ses- 



Legislation. sion of the Quebec Leg- 

 islature it is proposed to 

 seek legi.slation (1) to require settlers 

 to stop making flat slashings and instead 

 to pile the timber to be burnt in rows 

 or heaps, at least fifty feet from the 

 forest; (2) to make it compulsory for 

 all able-bodied men from eighteen to 

 sixty years of age to assist in putting 

 out a forest fire, when called on by a 

 forest ranger; (3) to have the windows 

 of all smoking cars on trains screened 



