Canadian Forest rif Journal, Xorcmhcr, 7.97<S' 



1935 



with the same equipment. I don't 

 think tliere is a ne\v tool in the woods. 

 This is not a proper situation with the 

 growini^ scarcity of labor. We have 

 to use mechanical means for decreas- 

 ing the cost of our logging. 



Look at the fire protection to-day. 

 When we started in to protect the 

 forests from fire we had men and 

 canoes. Now we have all sorts of 

 equipment, and we are going in one 

 bound to the most advanced mechani- 

 cal e(|iiipment in the protection. 

 You know the talk we have had 

 about aeroplanes for use in fire 

 protection. There is no question 

 that a man with good common sense, 

 as is the man who handles the woods 

 will see the value of aeroplanes in 

 this regard. We will probably be 

 putting out fires with gas bombs 

 l3efore long. That is not foolish, 

 it is something that is entirely pos- 

 sible now. 



We can do that same thing now 

 with the woods, but we will have to 

 get some sort of gasoline equipment 

 that will help us out with the heavy 

 labor. We will not be able to get 

 men at the wages we paid in the past. 

 There is only one answer. We have 

 to get out and get some kind of 

 mechanical equipment to saw the 

 trees down; some kind of mechanical 

 transport to get out the timber and 

 some way to drive the logs without 

 such large crews. 



Of course, feed has become so 

 expansive that we will have to get 

 away from horses. The motor truck 

 has shown what a poor draft animal 

 the horse is and he will gradually 

 disappear. I am not prophesying, 

 but I am telling you what will happen, 

 and it will happen very rapidly, and 

 we might just as well face the music. 

 We have to turn from men who do 

 things by rule of thumb, or in the 

 our grandfathers did, to the men 

 who are up to the times, and perhaps 

 a little ahead of them. 



One thing that has impressed me 

 in the time I have spent in the woods 

 has been the lack of observation on 

 the part of men whose business takes 

 them into the woods, or who have been 



practically brought up in the woods- 

 and then have some student from a 

 school come in and call our attention 

 to conditions which we have known 

 about all the time, but never took 

 the trouble to observe. We pass by 

 things over and over again, but do 

 not observe them. We are too busy 

 about something else. We don't 

 observe how much timber there is 

 per acre: how we are going to get it 

 out: how we are going to drive this 

 stream or that stream; conditions in 

 the forest don't mean anything to us. 

 If anybody should ask us how many 

 trees in an acre in the woods on our 

 limits there are very few of us who 

 could give a definite answer. 



You all know about the lack of 

 information — definite information 

 — in regard to timl)er limits. How 

 many men can say how much tim])er 

 is standing on the limits over which 

 they have jurisdiction? How man> 

 men can tell you the proportion of 

 spruce to balsam, or what happens 

 after you cut out the trees in your 

 logging operations excepting that a 

 good many of them blow down 

 amongst those which you leave? 



We have got to depend on somr 

 people who are trying to observe, 

 like Dr. Howe, in order to find out 

 what the conditions are. Then we 

 have to use our practical judgment 

 and common sense to see how we 

 can devise means to change the 

 situation. 



You all know of a case in point, 

 where twelve or fourteen years ago 

 we would not touch the balsam for 

 our paper mills; would not hear of 

 it. Then ten or twelve per cent, 

 used to be allowed (of course a great 

 deal more went in, but nobody knew 

 anything about that) then we allowed 

 twenty per cent., that is the mill- 

 men thought they were getting 

 twenty per cent. Then we greatly 

 increased it. The other day the 

 president of a big paper company 

 made the statement that they did 

 not use a stick of balsam in their 

 paper manufacture. He would no I 

 hear of it. That is all "tommyrot."" 

 He did not know that he was getting 

 balsam. He was so ill-informed that 

 he thought he was getting all spruce. 



