1008 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1917 



stances plantations have been known 

 to thrive when planted on stubble, it 

 was the exception and not the rule; 

 and to plant trees on either breaking 

 or backsetting invariably proved to 

 be disastrous. 



Varieties 



For the purpose of shelter, the 

 prairie farmer is limited practically 

 to a choice of maple, ash, elm, birch, 

 Cottonwood, Russian poplar, willows, 

 Carragana and certain evergreens, as 

 white spruce, jack pine and Scotch 

 pine. It is always advisable to mix 

 several kinds of trees in belts where 

 a number of rows are being planted, 

 for instance the poplars and cotton- 

 woods should be mixed with some 

 slow growing variety of tree, to form 

 a sort of undergrowth, as the pop- 

 lars grow so rapidly that they soon 

 become open at the bottom and 

 would not throw sufTicient shade to 

 kill our grasses and weeds. Again, 

 less damage is liable from insects or 

 disease in a mixed belt; this was il- 

 lustrated last summer when every 

 poplar and willow was stripped by 

 the poplar leaf beetle, but the insects 

 did not bother the maple, ash nor 

 elm. The same thing happened two 

 years ago when the green aphis was 

 so bad, the maples were absolutely 

 denuded, but very little damage was 

 done to other varieties of trees, and 

 in the mixed belts it was noticed 

 that the maples suffered less than they 

 did in the belts entirely ofmaples. 

 Spacing 



On the question of spacing there 

 are varied opinions The forestry 

 branch at Indian Head requires a 

 uniform spacing of 4 by 5 feet, this 

 distance appearing to give the best 

 results under average conditions. 

 This matter, however, is of secon- 

 ary importance to that of keeping 

 the surface soil beneath the trees 

 well cultivated, and free from grass 

 which is the worst enemy of our tree 

 plantations. Even after the trees are 

 well grown and the foliage dense 

 enough to choke out all such weeds 

 and grasses, it is an excellent prac- 

 tice to keep a strip of from 5 to 8 

 feet thoroughly cultivated all around 

 the outside edge. Thus, if the trees 

 are kept in a strong, healthy condi- 

 tion, they will be better able to with- 



stand the ravages of insects, rabbits, 

 fungus growths, disease and winter 

 killing. A year ago when the aphis 

 caused the death of so many maples, 

 Mr. Ross said that he himself did not 

 see a single example of trees being 

 entirely killed where the surface 

 ground around them had been prop- 

 erly cultivated. 



PROBLEMS IN QUEBEC 



I 



4„_„ — „_,._. — »._„,_. — ._™_™_. — „_„._.4. 



Mr. W. C. J. Hall, superintendent 

 of the forest protection branch, Que- 

 bec, speaking at the Forest Conserva- 

 tion Conference at Montreal, on 

 February 2nd, gave a very interesting 

 discussion of the forest guarding 

 problem In the province. There was, 

 he said, a large strip of land, con- 

 sisting of many million acres, over 

 which the department had a certain 

 amount of influence. In the rear 

 of that was 70,000 square miles of 

 crown lands, on which they con- 

 centrated their efforts, while in the 

 rear of that area again were 100,000 

 square miles of territory which was 

 difficult to deal with. Of the 70,000 

 square miles there were 25,000 under 

 the co-operative system. They had 

 now obtained the united assistance 

 of the government, limit holders, and 

 the public. Forty-five thousand 

 square miles were under the indi- 

 vidual system, and this included some 

 notable examples of efficiency — Mr. 

 J. R. Booth, who looked after his 

 limits as well as any association; 

 the River Ouelle Pulp and Lumber 

 Company, and the James Fenderson 

 Company. There were, however, 

 some slackers. During the fiscal 

 year 21,000 acres were affected by 

 fires; since then there had been some 

 large fires, but not so extensive as 

 had been reported. There was only 

 one railway line which was not under 

 the control of the department. A 

 great improvement was shown in rail- 

 way matters, the companies meeting 

 the department more than half way; 

 no one could say that the railway's 

 in Quebec were now a menace to the 

 timber lands. He believed that the 

 debris on colonization roads could be 

 burned without danger to the forests. 



