GO CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



Mr. THOMAS SOUTHWORTH. That is an extremely important matter which 

 is brought up by Mr. Chown, and I am glad to know that it is the intention of the 

 Forestry Branch at Ottawa to undertake a forward step with regard to the destruc- 

 tion of the forest debris in lumbering. I understand that the United States forest- 

 ers have had some lumbering operations conducted under their charge with that 

 object in view. Possibly Mr. Overton Price might be able to give us some infor- 

 mation as to the successful carrying out of that work. 



Mr. OVERTON PRICE. We are attempting on a large scale experiments in 

 practical forestry. The timber we sell is cut under rules and regulations drawn up 

 by practical foresters and enforced both in the spirit and the letter also by practical 

 foresters, so far as we have enough foresters to go round. Last year our timber 

 sales aggregated something over a billion, feet. I will not go into the details of 

 the rules and regulations, because they vary with local conditions, but their essen- 

 tial purpose is to leave the forests in as good condition after logging as is practicable 

 without making the cost prohibitive. They must be left in a good condition to 

 guard against fires, and for reproduction, and with as little waste as possible in the 

 forests themselves. With regard to fire we have so far required that all brush be 

 piled under logging regulations on the National Forests. These piles are then 

 burned, not by the purchasers, but by our own protective force. However, I 

 want to make it clear that this is merely an experiment and that we are not yet 

 committed to brush burning. Personally I am not sure that it is going to be the 

 most successful or cheapest system of protection against fires. It costs a lot, does 

 not afford absolute protection, and its effect upon re-production is going to be 

 important and sometimes serious. 



It was " up to us " first to get the best system we could lay our hands upon that 

 would be tolerably effective and we are trying that and other systems. The result 

 has been that last year the fires in the National Forests aggregated a good deal 

 less than one-twentieth of one per cent of the total area and the work of fire protec- 

 tion cost materially less than half a cent per acre, so that we can say practically the 

 fight against fires has been won on the National Reserves. But as to brush burning, 

 we are still a good deal in doubt as to whether it is the best ultimate measure. 



The PRESIDENT. What is the area of the United States National Forests? 

 Mr. PRICE. About 162,000,000 acres. 



The PRESIDENT. What do you know about their success with brush burning 

 in Minnesota? 



Mr. .PRICE. It is going on there, but we have not been able to tell yet what its 

 effect on production will be, but apparently it is going to be good. It is, however, 

 certain that brush burning is extremely expensive, asyouknow, and the calculation is 

 as to the cost of burning against the value of the second crop. That leaves'you in the 



