60 NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 



spot five feet around where the fire is to be set. The Act provides that 

 lumbermen shall call their crews together, read the Act, and warn them as 

 to setting of fires. 



The Railway Companies are required to provide their smoke stacks 

 with a bonnet screen interwoven at the draught with wires ( three times as 



O . % 



many wires for wood as for coal ), and section men to pass over their sec- 

 tions once a day. The right of way to be cleared of all combustible 

 material. A further Act provides that $2,000 can be expended in any one 

 year in carrying out the provisions as enacted. It is the opinion of 

 many that while the provisions are to a large extent admirable, this Act can 

 only be carried out by a well -selected Corps of Foresters, or Fire Wardens, 

 permanently employed by the Province, and along the same lines as regula- 

 tions of the Province of Ontario. These wardens could act as sealers of 

 lumber, Fishery and Game Wardens, Labor Act Commissioners, and in other 

 capacities of a public nature. The outlay for such a service would no doubt 

 be large, but the results would be far-reaching, and in the best interests of 

 the Province. There is no question in New Brunswick today of more im- 

 portance than the preservation of the forests in respect to the setting of 

 fires. 



The total area remaining in the possession of the Crown, as stated at 

 the outset, is in the vicinity of the 8 4-10 millions of acres, of which quan- 

 tity 6 1-2 millions are under timber license ; the remaining 1 1-2 million 

 acres or more being to a large extent burnt and barren lands. 



Licenses from the Crown are issued annually, but there is an under- 

 standing they will run to 1st August, 1918. The stumpage on spruce, pine, 

 fir and cedar is SI. 25 per M. S. Ft., and the yearly rental is $8 per sq. 

 mile. 



The average annual cut for the last five years has been 120 millions of 

 S. Ft., classified as follows : 



Spruce and Pine 95 Millions S. Ft. 



Cedar .' 15 



Hardwood 4 



Hemlock 3 



Fir 3 



Total , 120 



