120 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Septemher-Octoher, 1912. 



est protection fund, so as to favor the 

 growth of the new crop of timber and to 

 give it as much protection as possible 

 against fire. This work and the clearing 

 up of dangerous debris alongside public 

 roads and in other specially dangerous 

 localities will necessitate a slash-burning 

 campaign in many portions of the province. 

 Experiments already made by us in this 

 line have proved most successful. 



Attitude of Public to Fires Changed. 



' We are all conscious of the remarkable 

 change that has taken ]ilace in public 

 opinion with regard to forest fires. Ten 

 years ago people in the west looked upon 

 the burning of entire watersheds as a na- 

 tural alteration in the scenery that went 

 with rail\\ay construction, mining or land- 

 clearing as a matter of course. There 

 was a good deal of wagging of heads at 

 such wholesale destruction, but the pre- 

 vention or controlling of forest fires seem- 

 ed to be too ])ig an undertaking, and there 

 was consequently a general feeling of help- 

 lessness in the matter. That was so even 

 five or six years ago. Today in this pro- 

 vince there is an outcry if precautions are 

 not taken to prevent fires in places where 

 dangerous conditions exist, and when fires 

 occur jieople expect the fighting of them 

 to be organized promptly, and look for 

 just as much money to be expended as the 

 circumstances require. 



'Public opinion, in other words, has 

 been educated to higher standards, and 

 this result has been accomplished almost 

 entirely by the steady publicity that for- 

 est jirotection has received through the 

 press, through public speaking, through 

 the efforts of forestry associations, and 

 through the enforcement of the permit law 

 and other local work. 



Waste in Manufacture. 



'Six years ago we in this province felt 

 powerless to prevent the annual waste by 

 fire; today we see our way with con- 

 fidence. If one great problem can thus be 

 solved, why not another? Today, for in- 

 stance, each million feet of lumber manu- 

 factured on the Pacific Coast means the 

 wholesale butchery of low-grade material 

 for which our operators can find no market. 



'Other waste there is that is (irevent- 

 able, for examjile, the using of high-class 

 material in the woods for purposes for 

 which inferior timber would suffice, and 

 the cutting of lumber into even lengths 

 only, on account of which trade practice 

 investigation shows that two per cent, is 

 lost; but before the main problem of the 

 low-grade log, we are as helpless today as 

 we were regarding fire protection a few 

 years ago. T look to co-operation between 

 the operators of this province and the for- 

 est service, in order that this disease of 

 waste that affects our forest may be 



studied as carefully as doctors study 

 human diseases and that every possible 

 way of improving matters be discovered 

 and made use of. 



' Time forbids that T should say more 

 on this occasion, and I will confine my- 

 self to emphasizing one final point The 

 conservation movement has succeeded in 

 making the public realize that, region by 

 region, and state by state, many of the 

 forests of this continent are being cut 

 out. It is human nature for people to 

 console themselves with the thought that 

 the forests will last their time and that 

 nothiikg much can be done. 



'I think that it is just here that the 

 failure to give jieople a real interest in 

 forest business has occurred. . . . What 

 we need to drive into the understanding of 

 the people is that forestry, as we practice it, 

 means the scientific management of the gov- 

 ernment 's immense timber business, so that 

 the citizen who would otherwise have to pay 

 $15 in taxes has only to pay $10; so that in 

 years to come the citizen will have to pay 

 still less; so that while producing these 

 effects on revenue, the system of forest 

 finance will be so adjusted as to offer the 

 maximum of encouragement to the growth 

 of the lumbering industry; and, above all 

 other considerations, so that our forest 

 capital, the source of our prosperity, may 

 be preserved intact.' 



COMMITTEE ON KESOLUTIONS. 



The Resolutions committee named by the 

 president was composed of Hon. W. R. Ross, 

 Mr. R. 11. Campbell, Dominion Director of 

 Forestry; Dr. Fernow, dean of the faculty 

 of forestry of the University of Toronto; 

 Mr. Aubrey White, deputy minister of 

 lands, forests and mines of Ontario; Mr. 

 Wm. McNeill. Vancouver, and Mr. A. C. 

 Flumerfelt, Victoria. 



Lumbermen Approve Forest Act. 



Mr. T. F. Paterson, B.S.A., representing 

 the British Colum]>ia Liim])er and Shingle As- 

 ^ociation, read a pajier on 'The Forest Act 

 of British Colnmbia as Viewed by the 

 Coast Lumberman. ' On the whole, he said, 

 the lumbermen thought the act a good one, 

 and were prepared to co-operate with the 

 forest branch in carrying out a policy of 

 conservation. Not knowing the members of 

 the service yet, he refrained from any criti- 

 cism of them, but accepted the minister's 

 statement that the best men Were being se- 

 lected. In the appointment of fire wardens 

 and log scalers, he said the lumbermen de- 

 sired to see no man given a position unless 

 he was a man of some ability and experi- 

 ence. They recommended an examination 

 for scalers, and the ajipointment of fire 

 wardens for the year round at adequate 

 salaries. 



