1638 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1918 



of those interested in lumber. At 

 least s me of the men interested 

 in wood have come to realize the 

 danger confronting their business, 

 and they are now asking you and 

 every man and every woman who 

 has a direct or indirect connection 

 with the sale or manufacture of 

 wood to give help. 



"Your individual help is asked — 

 it is needed. If you have any 

 regard for your prosperity you will 

 come to the front. 



"How? 



"With the truth— with the facts 

 about lumber and its uses, and 



with the truth and the facts about 

 the misrepresentations that are being 

 scattered over this country in regard 

 to wood. 



"Wood Burns" the substitute man- 

 ufacturers have declared. 



"Wood does burn!" 



"And concrete crumbles, brick 

 walls collapse, steel girders twist 

 into bow knots, composition roofings 

 literally blow up— under certain fire 

 conditions. But little or nothing 

 is ever said of the defects of the 

 wood substitutes; it is only when 

 wood burns that the fact is dwelt 

 upon ptiblicly." 



The Practical Application of Scientific 



Forestry 



By R. 0. SwEEZEY, B.Sc. ; C.E.. 

 Consulting Engineer, Montreal 



A Call to Wood -Using Companies to Grapple 

 With the Menace of a Deteriorating Forest. 



Now that Canadians are really 

 becoming impressed by the glaring 

 facts concerning the rapid depletion 

 of our spruce forests the question 

 properly asked is how can we arrest 

 such destruction? 



Must we in Quebec Provincf, 

 for example, stand by and see the 

 St. Maurice valley reduced to such 

 deplorable conditions of forest waste 

 as we find today in the Trent Valley, 

 the Madawaska or the slopes of 

 Lake Huron? 



We do not all realize it but it 

 is none the less true that we are 

 eating into our forest capital at 

 such a rate that the St. Maurice 

 region is but a convenient example of 

 depletion. Like the depleted areas 

 in Ontario its soil is dry, it is a 

 sandy region and totally unsuited 

 to agriculture. 



If the forest cover is destroyed 

 we will then have barren waste 

 or at best, a most inferior type 

 of woods that suppress the more 

 valuable conifers. 



Decrease in Fire Losses 

 That some realize the seriousness 

 of the situation is evident and, 

 thanks to the excellent co-operation 

 of timber limit owners, fire risks 

 are yearl^^ becoming less severe. 

 Despite the eminent success attending 

 co-operative fire protection, however, 

 we shall yet no doubt suffer heavy 

 fire losses, which, combined with our 

 present methods of cutting, must 

 result in the complete abandonment 

 of large spruce forests to inferior 

 types like poplar and birch. Indeed 

 even these poor types have failed 

 to provide decent clothing for the 

 bare slopes of large sections of Ont- 

 ario and parts of the Ottawa valley. 

 Therefore, .when we observe this 

 condition now creeping over the 

 St. Maurice valley with acceler- 

 ating progress there should be no 

 doubt as to the outcome unless 

 the unhealthy condition is interfered 

 with immediately. It is even now 

 so far gone that ere long we shall 

 see pulp and paper mills on the 



