CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By Ell wood Wilson 



The most important happening of the 

 month, from a forestry standpoint, is the 

 announcement by the Hon. Frank Cochrane, 

 Minister of Railways and Canals, that he has 

 instructed the Management of the Inter- 

 colonial and other Dominion Government 

 Railways, to put into force the fire protection 

 regulations imposed on the other railways of 

 Canada by the Dominion Railway Commission, 

 thus removing a very curious and harmful 

 anomaly. Mr. Cochrane is to be congratu- 

 lated and his common sense and public spirit 

 will receive the thanks of all those interested 

 in the conservation of the forests of Eastern 

 Canada and all timber owners in that section. 

 This matter was first brought to Mr. Cochrane's 

 notice by Sir Clifford Sifton, Chairman of the 

 Conservation Commission, and he also de- 

 serves credit for this step forward. 



If the National Transcontinental Railway 

 is taken over and operated by the Government 

 the Dominion Railway Commission's Fire 

 Protection Regulations will be put in force. 

 The Grand Trunk Pacific has practically 

 refused to operate this line constructed by the 

 Government and in order to keep the right-of- 

 way from falling to pieces it must be operated. 



In order to stimulate the revenues the 

 British Columbia Government have again 

 amended the Forest Act so as to permit of 

 the reinstatement of any timber licenses that 

 have lapsed since the thirty-first of December, 

 1906. 



The Government has appointed Mr. H. R. 

 MacMillan, its Chief Forester, special com- 

 missioner to proceed to Australia, to study 

 market conditions for British Columbia timber 

 and to arrange with the Australian Govern- 

 ment for better terms and a broader market. 

 He will also do everything possible to advertise 

 British Columbia woods and explain their 

 uses and advantages. No better man could 

 possibly have been selected for such a mission 

 and we wish Mr. MacMillan a pleasant and 

 most successful trip. 



The St. Maurice Lumber Company is 

 preparing to construct several miles of tele- 

 phone lines through their limits this spring. 



Mr. J. M. Dalton, of the Gres Falls Pulp & 

 Paper Company, has just returned from a trip 

 to St. Jaques to see the working of a gasoline 

 log hauler and returned much impressed with 

 what he saw. One hauler was taking five 

 large sleighs carrying about 7,000 board feet 

 per trip and making three trips per ten-hour 

 day on a 7 mile road. There was no trouble 

 whatever in getting up even long steep hills 



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but some difficulty in going down as it was 

 hard to keep the sleds used as trailers from 

 getting across the roads and otherwise out of 

 line. ' The machine would take the five loaded 

 trailers up hills that a horse could not have 

 hauled a bunk load on and in breaking out 

 branch roads the machine would take its load 

 through loose snow that would completely 

 stall a horse drawing an empty sled. It was 

 doing the work of twenty-five horses. 



The spring work of the St. Maurice Forest 

 Protective Association has commenced and 

 every effort will be made to keep the fires 

 down to a lower figure than ever this season. 

 Plans are matured and everything is in readi- 

 ness. A new departure will be made this 

 spring in that a special ranger will be assigned 

 to each log drive and it is hoped that this will 

 cut out one of the commonest sources of fires. 

 Several miles of new telephone will be built 

 and one of the rangers working in a settled 

 district will probably be supplied with a Ford 

 automobile. 



A meeting of the lumbermen on the Upper 

 Ottawa river was held recently and the forma- 

 tion of the Upper Ottawa Forest Protective 

 Association was discussed and most of the 

 lumbermen were in favor of it. At a later 

 meeting however it was decided to wait for 

 another year. Evidently the limit holders on 

 the Upper Ottawa, being further back in the 

 woods are less progressive than their brethren 

 lower down the river, who formed the Lower 

 Ottawa Association last spring and were much 

 pleased with its success during the past very 

 dangerous season. 



Mr. Robson Black has been appointed 

 Secretary of the Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion to take the place vacated by the resig- 

 nation of Mr. James Lawler. Mr. Black is a 

 graduate of Queen's University and was for 

 seven years on the editorial staffs of the 

 Montreal Herald, Montreal Star, Ottawa 

 Citizen and Toronto News. Two years ago 

 he went into magazine work and was Editor 

 of the Financial Press Service of Canada. He 

 was also publicity manager for the Conservative 

 Party in Ontario. Mr. Black will have ample 

 scope for his talents and energies and the 

 Association is expecting much from him. 



Mr. G. C. Boyd, of Bobcaygeon, Ont., who 

 has large lumber interests spent a few days 

 in Grand Mere, looking over the forestry work 

 of the Laurentide Company. 



Messrs. G. D. McKay and Arnold Hanssen 

 have been elected active members and Mr. 

 B. K. Ayers an associate member of the 



