1636 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1918 



An Ounce of Prevention or a Ton 



of Cure ? 



One forest fire last year swept 



14,000 acres. 

 Prevention of that fire would have 



cost: One man's Vigilance. 

 To replant that area would now cost 



$140,000. 

 To replant that area would take 



14,000,000 trees. 



"Almost everyone who discusses 

 the forest situation in Canada asks: 

 What are you doing in reforestation? 

 Yet the same man will go out in 

 the forest and drop a match or 

 a cigarette stub, and in one fire 

 burn up more young trees than 



could be planted in twenty years 

 A fire in Southern Manitoda this 

 year ( 1917) destroyed 600 acres 

 of vigorous young growth. To re- 

 plant this would cost probably $10 

 per acre, or $60,000, and would 

 require 600,000 young trees. Solely 

 as a result of the inefficency of 

 a forest ranger one fire in another 

 place ran over 14,000 acres. To 

 replant this would cost $140,000 

 and take 14,000,000 young trees. 

 Similar cases might be cited all 

 over the country." Excerpt from 

 article by Mr. R. H. Campbell, 

 Dominion Director of Forestry. 



A Forest Dilemma in Australia 



Hon. W. G. Ashford, 

 Minister for Lands and Forests 



In many respects the forest wealth 

 of Australia is unif[iie. In bvi^'one 

 years, before the settlers' axes broke 

 the stillness of the mighty bush, 

 the number of our trees and the 

 variety ^f their species placed this 

 island continent in the front rank 

 of the timber-producing countries 

 of the world, but those who had 

 the ordering of things did not know — 

 certainly did not appreciate — the 

 immense waste that was being caused 

 by the indiscriminate inroads that 

 were made in order that people 

 might clear the land for the grazing 

 of herds and flocks, or for growing 

 crops. Only in recent years has 

 there been recognition of the import- 

 ance to Australia of a systematic 

 and stable policy of forest conser- 

 vation, improvement and utilization; 

 but even now few people lake any 

 interest in the subject of forestry 

 as a national crncern, and fewer 

 still have troubled themselves to 

 think whv Governments reserve 



large areas of land for the sake 

 of the trees that grow and may be 

 grown upon it. 



In other words, forestry in Austra- 

 lia is, so far as the public, who 

 own the forests, are concerned, a 

 subject of no interest. The labour 

 expended upon them is not under- 

 stood; the strict rules made for 

 their protection are often misunder- 

 stood, sometimes ridiculed, and not 

 infrequently wilfully ignored. That 

 is not as it should be; l3ut the reason 

 is not difficult to find. The people 

 do not understand their forests ; 

 they do not know the great commer- 

 cial value they are to the country ; 

 they have not been taught to look 

 upon trees as much more than a 

 source of supply for fuel and fencing 

 material; and they have been satis- 

 fied that the great countries over- 

 seas should send us the timber 

 needed for everyday requirements 

 and take in return our good Austra- 

 lian gold. 



