CAiniulian Forvslrij Journai Augnsl, I!) J 7 



1211 



cash deficit on one year's iuuKllini!; 

 of tiieir new forest possessions. 

 Subsidies Forfeited 



More than that, they would auto- 

 matically forfeit the provincial sul)- 

 sidies paid by the Dominion Govern- 

 ment amounting to: 



Manitoba $469,007. 



Saskatchewan $r)G2,500. 



Alberta $562,500. 

 as a Dominion allowance in lieu of 

 public lands. 



These subsidies are paid as com- 

 pensation for Dominion control of 

 the natural resources, and would 

 lapse with any transfer of title to 

 the lands. 



What proportion of the subsidies 

 is represented by the forest resources 

 is not ascertainable, but assuredly 

 it would represent a very large sum 

 for each province. The net result 

 would be that Manitoba, for example, 

 not only would lose that portion of 

 its provincial subsidies, represented 

 by the forests, but would have no 

 immediate financial compensation 

 whatever from fores' management 

 and must needs disburse a very large 

 sum annually from general taxatior 

 to pay for forest patrol. 



The Forestry Journal again em- 

 phasizes its dissociation from the 

 political phases of the question and 

 its sole desire to shed the light of 

 statistical facts on a very evident 

 misunderstanding. 



The Interests of the West 

 If the West asks the right to im- 

 prove the conservation methods as 

 applied to its provincial forests and 

 is willing to assume a very heavy 

 annual outlay for that purpose, then 

 the transfer of the forest resources 

 from the Dominion Government takes 

 on a rather pleasing color. But if 

 certain Western leaders, believing 

 they are on the trail of a gold mine, 

 propose that one single dollar shall 

 be spared from the necessary out- 

 lays now applied to forest protection 

 and restoration in the prairie prov- 

 inces, then no citizen of Canada can 

 support the proposition without be- 

 traving the vital interests of the West 

 itself. 



The prairie provinces need their 



forests. Tiieir northern areas are 

 designed by unchangea])le natural 

 conditions for I rec growing and for 

 that mainly. Seventy-five or eighty 

 per cent, of the northern lands now 

 tree covered will never pay profits to 

 agriculture. To strip them of tim- 

 ber by means of forest fires means to 

 strip them of the only income-pro- 

 ducing crop they can ever give. They 

 will become the desert lands of the 

 West. Thousands of square miles 

 are already in that condition. 



Fire Ravages 



The truth, as fixed by reconnais- 

 sance parties of the Dominion For- 

 estry Branch, is that a survey of 

 100,000 square miles across the tops 

 of the three prairie provinces showed 

 that only thirteen acres in a huhdred 

 of lands naturally well timbered, con- 

 tained trees of eight inches or more 

 in diameter. In other words, series 

 of disastrous forest fires, coming in 

 cycles of, roughly, thirty years, have 

 so gutted the prairie forest supplies 

 as to reduce them to a fraction of 

 their original values. Unless the 

 prairie province f crests are kept clear 

 of fires by Government protective 

 systems, such as are now applied by 

 the Dominion, and built up by re- 

 planting and by regulating cutting 

 operations, — all of which involve 

 heavy expense — the provincial forest 

 resources will soon be in such hope- 

 less condition as to be hardly worth 

 holding by either Dominion or Prov- 

 ince. 



How Forests Contribute 



The western forests, as they stand, 

 are cf immense value to the settlers 

 in the neighborhood of the Reserves, 

 w^ho get practically free lumber. 

 They support numerous lumber in- 

 dustries and give invaluable aid to 

 the coal mines with pit props, and 

 to the irrigation enterprises with 

 watershed protection. One must bear 

 in mind, however, that the popula- 

 tion of the West is only in its infancy, 

 that the future will place a value upon 

 the forest possessions incalculably 

 greater than does the present genera- 

 tion. The population of the New 

 Canada of a few years hence will re- 

 quire abundant and cheap wood sup- 



