Canadian Forestrij Journal, Julij, 1918 



1803 



tlie lives of whole nations out here. 

 I thought that I had seen some of the 

 poorest people alive when I saw some 

 of the poor people of the Xcw York 



shims and the poor whiles of the 

 South, but they are bloated bond- 

 holders compared to these refugees. 

 From ''American Forestry.'''' 



The Problem in Abitibi 



Mr. G. C. Piche, Chief of the 

 Quebec Forest Service, who recently 

 took control of the fire protection 

 work in that province stated recently 

 to an interviewer of the Quebec 

 Telegraph some interesting facts con- 

 cerning the new fire protective sys- 

 tem in the Abitibi region: 



"I ^ have recently been to the 

 Abitibi district on the line of the 

 Transcontinental Railway, where I 

 went to orhanize a fire protection 

 service. It is a section comprising 

 a large area of forest property of 

 much value, and at the same time a 

 rich agricultural centre. The land 

 is extremely suited for agriculture 

 and settlers are going there in large 

 numbers. The constant rain of last 

 season greatly delayed the settlers 

 from clearance work. So this year 

 they will have to do double the 

 work, and it is expected that they 

 will clear about 20,000 acres, srattered 

 between the Nottaway and La Reine, 

 about one hundred miles in length. 



"The settlers at Abitibi, are dis- 

 tributed on each side of the Trans- 

 continental Railway, some as far 

 as ten miles apart. The Depart- 

 ment requires that each settler should 

 obtain a permit before burning his 

 slash, as a precaution against forest 

 fires, and the Department will 

 employ ten special rangers during 

 the dangerous season. Besides these 

 precautions the Transcontinental 

 Railway right of way requires a 

 good deal of attention on account 

 of the growth of scrub and grasses, 

 part of the debris that have been 

 accumulated and no^ burned or re- 

 moved. These conditions make ic 

 necessary to acquire and maintain 

 sprinklers that will follow the trains 

 as they pass this section to extin- 

 guish any fires that may be started 

 by the sparks from each train. 



"In addition to these sprinklers 



special pumps with adequate equip- 

 ment will be installed along the 

 line of railway, and distributed at 

 various gi-en points at combat fire. 

 It will mean a big expense, but the 

 Government desires to protect the 

 settlers' lives, as well as their prop- 

 erty, and prevent a repetition of the 

 terrible calamity at Cochrane two 

 years ago, when two hundred miles 

 of timber limits were burned, and 

 220 lives lost in the flames, that 

 swept out of existence villages, and 

 caused such dire results generally. 



"The Transcontinental Railway 

 authorities have promised the Que- 

 bec Government to assist in this 

 matter of expense and protection, 

 because they are also interested, 

 especially in the welfare of the coun- 

 try, or section of the railroad which 

 has and is giving the railway a 

 heavy and lucrative business, in 

 both the passenger and freight bran- 

 ches of the service, and as the rail- 

 way officials admit, much more than 

 they ever expected. 



"The forest fire protection service 

 as merged with great success by the 

 several protective associations or- 

 ganized by the lumbermen of the 

 Province is such that the gross re- 

 sults in a general way, is far ahead 

 of all other Provinces in the 

 Dominion. The people of this Pro- 

 vince have come to realize more than 

 alsewhere, what forest fires mean as 

 a medium of destruction to them- 

 selves as well as the Province, and 

 the Government on this account ob- 

 tains more co-operation from the 

 people than any other Province in 

 the Dominion. But this does not 

 prevent forest fires continuing, until 

 a proper system of education in 

 regard to the settlers is practically 

 placed before them, that will cause 

 even more precautions against forest 

 fires. 



