Notes. 



175 



hundred and fifty men were engaged in 

 fighting fire, and, in addition to regular 

 salaries, the sum of Sll,"97.18 is re- 

 ported as expended in wages and labor, 

 besides a considerable amount author- 

 ized direct to government agents. A 

 total of S627.00 is reported as having 

 been expended by private parties. The 

 total number of miles covered by the 

 patrol was 68,130. The clearing permits 

 issued totalled 2,530; 57 informations 

 were laid for violations of the Bush 

 Fires Act, 26 convictions obtained and 

 the sum of $800.00 levied in fines. 



It is gratifying to note that the prob- 

 lem of forest fire prevention is receiving 

 much more attention from the prov- 

 incial authorities, and the matter of 

 forest fire protection is regarded as a 

 very important one. During the last 

 session a provision was introduced into 

 the "Bush Fires Act," requiring all per- 

 sons washing to clear land in the re- 

 stricted months, in addition to the 

 usual precautions required, to first 

 obtain a permit for the clearing from 

 the district fire warden or other govern- 

 ment officer. Application has also been 

 made to the Railway Commission to 

 have the regulations governing the op- 

 eration of railway locomotives amended 

 so as to lessen the danger arising from, 

 this source. 



ince, doing much by example and in- 

 struction to spread a knowledge of the 

 principles of tree growing on the 

 prairies. Long may he be spared to 

 carry on the good work ! 



A Pioneer The Xor'-West Farmer, 

 Western in its issue of November 



Tree- 6th, shows a number of 



Pl.\nter. half-tone cuts of trees in 



the orchard of Mr. A. P. 

 Ste\enson, of Dun.ston, Man. Mr. 

 Stevenson's orchard this year produced 

 over 100 barrels of apples and between 

 forty and fifty bushels of plums. His 

 salts of apples alone amounted to over 

 $450.00. One Hibernal apple tree, 

 twenty years old produced five barrels, 

 and a Transcendent crab tree, twenty- 

 nine years old, gave over six barrels. 

 Mr. Stevenson is a pioneer in the grow- 

 ing of both fruit and forest trees in 

 Manitoba and his knowledge of all sides 

 of the problem gave him the best kind 

 of qualification as supervisor of tree 

 planting in Manitoba under the free 

 distribution scheme of the Forestry 

 Branch, with which he has served since 

 the inauguration of that scheme in 1900. 

 For nine years he has carried the gospel 

 of tree planting throughout the prov- 



The Forest In extolling (quite 

 Will rightly) the importance 



Endure. of agriculture ifo Ontario, 



as compared with "the 

 more alluring products of the niine and 

 the forest" the Toronto "Globe" of 

 December 8th remarks: "While mineral 

 wealth must be exhausted and the forests 

 are in danger of depletion, the pro- 

 ductive land promises a return to labor 

 down all succeeding years." Surely the 

 forestry specialist of the editorial staff 

 W'as on leave of absence; otherwise he 

 was surely nodding. Present forests 

 may be pretty badly depleted and that 

 process may go on, but all the forest 

 needs in order to give "a return to labor 

 down all succeeding years" is proper 

 treatment and the return will be as 

 sure as, or surer than, that given by 

 farm land, though it may not be as 

 great per acre. 



IXDIAXS IXTERESTED IN FOREST 

 PROTECTION. 



Mr. William Mclnnes of the Geologi- 

 cal Survey, who spent the summer of 

 1909 in the Lac la Ronge district, in 

 Saskatchewan, brings back gratifying 

 information regarding the greatly in- 

 creased interest among the Indians of 

 that district in the prevention of forest 

 fires. The fire notices in Cree which 

 have been sent out by the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch are fa'ithfully read by 

 the Indians, nearly all of whom can 

 read the SN'Uabic characters and who 

 are proud of that knowledge. At Lac 

 la Ronge a particularly noticeable mark 

 of this interest was given. On one of 

 the points that jut out into the lake a 

 fire had occurred which burned over a 

 large portion of it. One of the Indians 

 had been noticed leaving the neighbor- 

 hood shortly before, and his careless- 

 ness was blamed for the setting of the 

 fire. The case was taken up by the 

 Indian council, and the proposal was 

 made that the offender should be taken 

 into custody and handed over to the 

 authorities for punishment. After dis- 

 cussion, however, it was finally decided 

 to let the man go with a warning. 



