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Canadian Forest nj Journal, December, 1917 



stampage in either the United States 

 or Canada, in many instances fully 

 ten times the amount paid here. 

 One cannot fail to realize that such 

 property must rapidly advance in 

 value when hostilities cease, which 

 cannot very long be deferred. 

 How Europe's Forests Pag 

 I have a descriptive illustration of 

 a spruce forest in Saxony which shows 

 that the smaller spruce trees there 

 were valued at $15 per cord stumpage, 

 in the woods for pulpwood, and the 

 larger trees were valued at from $25 

 to $35 per thousand feet, board meas- 

 ure, for lumber. And an illustration 

 of a forest ol fir timber in the Vosges, 

 France, planted 100 years ago, that 



was valued at $1,500 an acre or fully 

 $40 per thousand feet stumpage. 

 And another spruce forest near Ober- 

 indorf in the Black Forest, Germany, 

 was valued at $2,500 per acre, which 

 is equal to $50 per thousand feet for 

 the wood crop alone. 



Such prices as these for similar tim- 

 ber should admonish us against fool- 

 ishly sacrificing our spruce timber for 

 one-tenth of its stumpage value as we 

 did our white pine, and as we are now 

 doing with our spruce, or we will soon 

 have only the stumps left, as is the 

 case with our pine, to remind us ot 

 our great imprudence. 



—WILLIAM LITTLE 

 November 3, 1917, 



Slash Disposal Experiments in Canada 



Specific experiments in slash dis- 

 posal on the Western Forest Reserves 

 have been so successful that the Dom- 

 inion Forestry Branch has decided 

 to continue this work and, by means 

 of investigations on larger areas and 

 areas of varied conditions in timber, 

 soil, etc., to develop a policy which 

 will render Canadian forests as free 

 from fire danger, due to the leaving 

 of slash, as European forests are gen- 

 erally considered to be. 



The experiments were first con- 

 ducted under the easiest conditions, 

 namely, in jack-pine timber, on small 

 tracts, in somewhat open and even- 

 aged stands without heavy brush, 

 and on -sandy land where the fire 

 could not run easily. The brush was 

 piled while the operation went on 

 and burned later. Spruce forest was- 

 chosen for the next experiment, and 

 here also results were satisfactory, 

 even though the litter customary on 

 the forest floor of such forests would 

 seem to offer a dangerous possibility 

 for fire getting beyond control in the 

 burning process. At the outset, cau- 

 tion dictated that the piling of the 

 ])rush be done by the operators and 

 the burning by the forest rangers. 

 Subsequently, however, both piling 



and burning were given into the hands 

 of the operators, and it was found 

 that burning immediately after the 

 trees had been ciit gave the most 

 satisfaction and proved the safest 

 method. 



The cost of this slash disposal 

 varied from 25 to 75 cents per thou- 

 sand feet board measure, according 

 to the efficiency of the operators after 

 some experience, their spirit of willing- 

 ness or unwillingness to adopt this 

 new method appearing greatly to 

 influence their efficiency; that is to 

 say, the higher cost was maintained 

 for work done by operators who 

 contended that the experiment would 

 not work, while the lower cost was 

 the result where workers started in 

 with the idea that the work would 

 be 'done well and quickiy. 



Not the least of the benefits der- 

 ived from these experiments is the 

 admission by a majority of the opera- 

 tors that this is the proper method 

 of handling slash to insure protection 

 against fire, some also adding that 

 having the brush out of the way 

 facilitates further operations to such 

 an extent that they regard the cost 

 of its removal as practically nil. — 

 Journal of Forestrij. 



