1496 



Canadian Forest ri/ Journal, January., 1918 



industries, except that you do not 

 generally examine very closely into 

 the supplies of timber. Millions of 

 dollars have been spent for mills 

 which do not even have accurate 

 maps of the lands from which they 

 clraw their supplies, and whose only 

 estimates of quantities are made by 

 men who often do not know whether 

 Lhev are exploring their own territory 

 or that of a neighbor. I might men- 

 tion two cases among several others, 

 which have come under my personal 

 notice. A cruiser of experience, went 

 for his employer up one of our rivers 

 and reported plenty of timber. A 

 year or so later, when foresters were 

 sent over the same territory, they 

 found that there was only a fringe of 

 timber along the river and that the 

 country behind was practically all 

 burnt clean. A large block of limits 

 were bought, having been reported as 

 only very little burnt and a good 

 stand of timber remaining. When a 

 detailed cruise was made, 97 per cent, 

 of the territory was burnt and had 

 only a very slight reproduction. This 

 reflects very little on the cruiser, for 

 he has been expected to cover hund- 

 reds of square miles of country in a 

 few weeks and for almost nothing. 

 Naturally he cannot go over the 

 country in detail, but must travel 

 along {he rivers which are always the 

 best wooded and must get what little 

 information he can about the back 

 country by climbing a hill and looking 

 through a pair of field glasses. 



Another case in point is that of a 

 bank which lent money on limits 

 which were afterwards found to have 

 practically nothing on them. This 

 is work for trained and experienced 

 men which costs money and is amply 

 worth while. If the wood is not there 

 a large investment is saved from an 

 unsound enterprise and if it is in 

 sufficient quantity, the supply of raw 

 material is there and the management 

 has an accurate plan of its territory 

 and an estimate of its resources from 

 which operations may be intelligently 

 planned. Then, too, the mills can be 

 so proportioned that they will always 

 have timber and not be built of such 

 a size that they will use up their raw 



material before the investment has 

 been amortized. 



Getting Rid of Fire 

 Until lately timber lands were 

 subjected to heavy fire risks which 

 could not be readily covered by in- 

 surance. Now in many sections of the 

 country, co-operative and Government 

 fire protection systems' have done 

 away with this menace. In the St. 

 Maurice Forest Protective Associa- 

 tion the loss totalled for the past three 

 years is only half of one per cent, and 

 with improved methods which are 

 being adopted each year the loss from 

 forest fires will soon be a negligible 

 quantity. This improvement of fire 

 protection methods has now brought 

 into the field a reliable timberlands 

 insurance company which will insure 

 lands having adequate Government 

 or co-operaLive fire protection at a 

 very reasonable rate, but will not in- 

 sure lands not so protected at all. 

 Now, no bank should make loans on 

 timberlands without adequate pro- 

 tection either, but should demand 

 that intending borrowers properly 

 protect themselves by joining Assoc- 

 iations. They should also demand 

 proper maps showing location of 

 timber and the certificate of a com- 

 petent forester as to the amount of 

 timber. In the past no one has under- 

 taken engineering work, or chemical 

 work w ithout the advice of competent 

 technical men and this should be the 

 attitude of timberland owners, whose 

 lands should be handled by trained 

 foresters. It is only necessary to 

 point to the successful enterprises 

 w^hich have availed themselves of 

 such assistance. I do not want to be 

 understood in claiming that such 

 success is due to trained foresters, but 

 I do say that it is significant that the 

 most successful industries are those 

 employing technically trained men 

 throughout their plants and the woods 

 are no exception. 



"Sound Common Sense" 

 The cjuestion of reforestation is a 

 large and pressing one and should be 

 faced at the earliest possible moment. 

 Our most successful wood using in- 

 dustry has had such a policy under 



