1770 



Canadian Forcslri/ JournuL Juki, lUlS 



frequently a scattered, impecunious, 

 ill-educated body of population. 



Unless the deliberations of the 

 Dominion Soldier Settlement Board 

 recognize the prime necessity of 

 selecting homesteads for soldier 

 settlers on the basis of expert advice 

 by technically-qualified soil examin- 

 ers and foresters, the old blunders in 

 C.anadian settlement are likely to be 

 perpetuated. The forester, of course, 

 would not be called into council in 

 regard to bare prairie lands. But in 

 all instances where the Board pro- 

 poses to take slices out of existing 

 forest reserves or to open up forested 

 country in any part of the Dominion, 

 the advice of a professional forester 

 is a first essential. There is a lively 

 tendency for laymen to leap to the 

 conclusion that any timber-bearing 

 land will make good farm land. This 

 has been responsible for enormous 

 economic losses to the Dominion and 

 a vast deal of human misery. Of the 

 tree-covered areas of Northern Mani- 

 toba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, 

 probably 75 to 90 per cent, is un- 

 adaptable to farming and should be 

 maintained under timber. The sett- 

 ler who tries to up set Nature's fixed 

 arrangement impoverishes both him- 

 self and the soil from which he hoped 

 to get a livelihood. 



AN INDIAN FORESTER'S 

 EXPERIENCE 



Few Canadian foresters or fire 

 rangers are called upon to pass 

 through the experiences which the 

 Indian Journal of Forestry credits to 

 one of the British forest engineers. 



The forester was visiting a clearing 

 in a Sal forest, and with approving 

 hand was patting the young sal- 

 shoots, when, raising his eyes, he 

 saw a sambar within a few yards, 

 gazing hungrily at him. There* being 

 no tree handy the forester didn't 

 climb it. The officer ceased thinking 

 of the girl he left behind him and 

 concentrated his attention on the 

 sambar. "P]very now and then," he 

 writes, "the sambar hammered the 

 ground with his hoofs and his tail stuck 

 up at right angles and looked as if 

 it had been dal/bed on as an after- 



thought." A sambar is savage at any 

 time, but when he has a perpendicula^r 

 tail, it is up to any human in the 

 vicinity to ])re])arc for immediate 

 dissolution. "Through a special in- 

 tervention of Providence," continues 

 the forest officer, "nothi.ng happened. 

 After looking me over for a little, the 

 sambar lowered his danger signal and 

 trotted off into the forest. He had, 

 I fancy, recognized the service uni- 

 form, but he wasn't after me. I am 

 young and slender, while the chief is 

 old and fat. Apparently it was the 

 boss the brute was laying for." 



Plucking a handful of young sal 

 leaves the forester wiped the cold 

 sw'eat from his brow, and turned to 

 leave the clearing. lie immediately 

 found himself gazing into the blazing 

 eyes of a man-eating tiger! The 

 position was critical, and the forester 

 again deeply deplored the absence 

 of a climbable tree. The tiger's tail, 

 like the sambar's, was in evidence. 

 But the tiger's afterthought wasn't 

 perpendicular. It was vigorously 

 swished from side to side and was 

 playing the deuce with the young sals 

 within its reach. The officer opened 

 his coal, to get out pencil and paper 

 wherewith to write a few last words, 

 when — but let the forester tell his 

 own story — ^"The tiger, I am of 

 opinion, misunderstood my action. 

 He thought, apparently, that I was 

 about to give him a copy of the new 

 forest orders dealing with the de- 

 struction of man-eaters, for, with a 

 snarl of rage, he bounded off into the 

 forest!" The intrepid man was 

 saved! The story of the adventure 

 concludes with these moving words, 

 "I reached my camp and took out a 

 bottle of Scotch. I do not mind con- 

 fessing that my hand shook as I 

 poured myself out a first-mate's nip." 



SEN. CURRY'S TREES ESCAPE 



The "new forest", consisting of 

 30,000 Norway pine seedhngs, planted 

 by Senator Curry some years ago at 

 Athol, Nova Scotia, escaped all in- 

 jury from the forcft fires that have just 

 swept that section of the country. 



