Canadian Forvslrij Journal, August, 1U17 



12()1 



\\'ha{ Conscrralion Mvan.sl 



Conservation of forests means'that 

 every acre of i^round in the Dominion 

 capable of gro^\inii field croi)s shall 

 be delivered to the ai,M'iculliirist when 

 required. Trees cannot i<ive as good 

 profits as annual wheat harvests when 

 the soil is favorable to the latter. 

 But more than 60 per cent, of the 

 whole of Canada will never produce 

 farm crops. The conditions of soil, 

 climate, topography, render that 60 or 

 more per cent, unfit to take the pIo\^ 

 or spade. Except in pockets it would 

 not pay the settler his salt. Much of 

 it is permanent barrens, as in Ungava, 

 and in streaks of every county north 

 or south. Conservation of these en- 

 ormous non-agricultural tree-growing 

 areas — about 500,000.000 acres — 

 means that where a farm crop is im- 

 possible a timber crop shall be assured. 

 Why not? Timber will grow, within 

 chmalic limitations, almcst every- 

 where. Saskatchewan, for example, 

 is a prairie Province except on those 

 millions of acres where it is emphati- 

 cally a forest Province. Seveniy or 

 eighty per cent, of its northern tree- 

 covered soil wn'll never pay dividends 

 to agriculture for reasons that time or 

 tide cannot alter. The rule of effi- 



ciency (synonym for conservation; 

 recpiii.es that the bulk of Saskatche- 

 wan no«-agricultural soil shall be re- 

 garded as a rich Provincial inheri- 

 tance and that fire shall be rigidly 

 excluded, as a man excludes it from 

 his houses and barns. More than that, 

 the law of good house-keeping to 

 which the ^^ar has seemingly com- 

 mitted us, means that the exact 

 science of forest management shall 

 be applied so as to endow the Sask- 

 atchewan of 1997 with even better 

 forests than existed half a century 

 ago before the carnival of fires. 

 The Fire Enemy 

 Forest fires have bullied and impov- 

 erished Canada for more than a cen- 

 tury. While European nations cir- 

 cumvented the damage of flames by 

 determined and successful means, 7)0 

 to 100 years ago, we remained the vic- 

 tim of boyish delusions about the help- 

 lessness of man against the terrors of 

 Providence, ^^e are learning very 

 late but very willingly that fire dam- 

 age in the precious forests can be 

 ousted. Methods of prevention and 

 of fire fighting have become more or 

 less standardized the world over, and 

 are available to any Government or 

 individual who cares to ask nuestions. 



The Deadlp Manzanillo 



By Frank Coyne 

 In ''American Forest rif 



Literature on the tropics abounds 

 with stories of poisonous plants and 

 trees, and to this beautiful tree, arch- 

 ing many a roadway with its glossy 

 green leaves and rose-tinted flowers, 

 has been ascribed the deadly poison- 

 ous properties of the far-famed Upas 

 tree of the East. 



To the fruit of this tree, more than 

 to the effect of its foliage, is due its 

 evil name. Manzanillo in Spanish 

 means "little apple" and in the 

 Papiamento tongue of the blacks of 

 Curacao, Dutch West Indies, living 

 in their little thatched huts, the name 



Manzanillo is pronounced but slightly 

 differently from the Spanish. 



It has been stated by Spanish 

 writers that if one remains under its 

 shade for a few hours or sleeps there' 

 death is likely to follow, or that even 

 if the unfortunate escapes death the 

 body will become a mass of run- 

 ning '. ores. The deleterious proper- 

 ties of the shade of this, tree have, 

 however, been greatly exaggerated, 

 and as for the actual poisonous effect 

 of the leaves and shade considerable 

 diversity o^ opinion still exists, as is 

 the case wdth the poison ivy of the 

 States. 



