64 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



If this is done, I believe that at future meetings of our Associations we shall not 

 count those in attendance by tens, but by hundreds. As matters stand at present 

 we do not catch people young enough to give them a permanent interest in this 

 subject. 



Mr. SOUTHWORTH. With regard to my resolution touching upon the disposal 

 of debris, I think we have not sufficiently appreciated the importance of this in the 

 policy of the Association. We have dealt with this matter almost exclusively 

 from the point of view of fire protection. As we go along we will find that the 

 possibilities of re-afforestation become much more important than the question of 

 fire, especially in Ontario, where unfortunately we have large and thick stands of 

 pine where there is no disposal of debris. If it is cut off too closely it ceases to 

 remain a pine forest, but grows up to spruce and other cheap woods. But where 

 we have open stands, that is the trees separated, the debris does not affect re-affor- 

 estation, and we get in these open stands a much greater tendency toward forest 

 reproduction. We stand in this Association especially for the conservation of our 

 forests, and this seems to me to be one of the best ways to secure the conservation 

 and reproduction of the wood resources of the Dominion. 



Colonel T. G. LOGGIE. I would like to ask Mr. Ross if I understand that he 

 can run external lines over a square mile of land into quarter mile strips and run 

 parallel lines through the square mile each way, north and south, and east and 

 west for four cents an acre. I am here to-day to find such information for New 

 Brunswick, and as an official of their Crown Lands Department, I will say that 

 we are very deeply interested in the question of forestry. Two years ago we passed 

 the Public Domain Act giving the Government authority to actually survey all 

 the Crown lands of the Province. I have been asked by the Government to esti- 

 mate the cost of this large quantity of work, and I place the cost at half a million 

 dollars, which rather staggers the Government. I was surprised to-day to hear that 

 Mr. Ross can lay out a square mile of land and put up square mile posts, then run 

 parallel lines all ways for four cents an acre, and in addition to that estimate 

 the growth and secure information which would enable the Government to segregate 

 timber from settlement land. It seems to me almost impossible to get so much in- 

 formation for four cents an acre, and I would very much like to get information 

 for my Government as to how Mr. Ross could do that. 



I may say further that I am heartily in agreement with the views of Mr. 

 Meighen as to fires along the tracks of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Our 

 Government two years ago passed a very admirable Act. It is true the Transcon- 

 tinental people do not like it, because it gives the Government authority to assess 

 the cost of patrolling the line of railway while it is being surveyed and constructed 

 by them. Whether the means taken by the Government will have the effect of stop- 

 ping fires once the road is constructed, I am not prepared to say, but personally 

 I feel that there will be a large element of danger. Mr. Meighen has told you of 



