CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 87 



GOVERNMENT CONTROL. 



A full discussion of the relation, of the Government to the forests is beyond 

 the scope of this paper. A few points may be touched upon, however, where the 

 Government regulations come in contact with the lumberman who is striving to 

 operate conservatively and preserve his holdings indefinitely. 



DIAMETER LIMIT. 



To prevent the total exhaustion of forest resources it is customary for the 

 Government to regulate the cutting on Crown lands by establishing a minimum 

 diameter limit. A general diameter in spruce woods will never prove satisfactory, 

 and may result in greater loss on one side than it makes in saving on the other. 

 Different localities require different treatment. While a minimum diameter 

 limit for general use may be fixed at fourteen inches breast high, in some cases 

 it pays best to sweep an area clean of all merchantable stuff. In other cases a 

 diameter limit of eight, nine, or ten inches may yield more satisfactory results. 

 These questions can only be settled by thorough and skilful investigation on the 

 ground. This must be clear to any one who has studied the result of judicious 

 thinnings in second growth, or has seen the disastrous blowdowns that occur after 

 cutting in some localities. Just what changes in cutting regulations are necessary 

 to overcome 'this difficulty is not quite clear. Regulations can hardly be set forth 

 on paper clearly enough to cover all cases, while on the other hand, the cost of 

 supplying a sufficient number of experts to investigate each locality thoroughly 

 and fix the proper diameter limit for use there, would be very great. It seems as 

 though a partial solution at least might be found through co-operation between the 

 Government and the lumberman. The best interests of the Government and of the 

 country are identical with those of the company, owning its own mills and oper- 

 ating for pulpwood. While adhering in the main to its present policy, the Govern- 

 ment might introduce a clause into its cutting regulations allowing those companies 

 that show a clear intention of cutting conservatively, and back this up by em- 

 ploying trained men, to handle each section of their holdings in the way that seems 

 mutually best. A few trained men in the Government's service could exercise a 

 surveillance generally over the work of the different companies availing themselves 

 of this clause. Where it is clear that advantage is being taken of the privilege for 

 the sole purpose of stripping the berth clean, the privilege can be cancelled, pen- 

 alties imposed, or the timber licenses may be confiscated. 



FIRE PROTECTION. 



The establishment of an effective fire protection system is of course of the 

 utmost importance in conservative lumbering. Certainly it will never pay to 

 sacrifice present gain in the expectation of future greater returns if the latter are 

 to be swept away by fire. This question is fully dealt with in other papers and will 

 be only touched upon here. It should be emphasized that co-operation between the 

 Government, the railroads, the lumbermen, and amongst the lumbermen them- 

 selves, is essential, especially where timber land holdings are scattered. All danger- 

 ous localities should be thoroughly policed during the dry months. A system of 

 telephone lines, and of good portage roads will greatly facilitate the handling of 

 fires. The lumberman can aid this work greatly by taking out all dead standing, 



