CANADIAN FORESTRY. ASSOCIATION 21 



and many saplings have been and are being wantonly cut down and destroyed 

 for some imaginary purpose by the axemen. It is well known that where 

 the soil is not destroyed by fire, nature will supply us with a nurse crop of 

 seedlings more quickly than any scheme of reforestation yet devised. If, 

 however, the soil is severely burned, the fire-swept territory is practically 

 beyond redemption. 



The question of protection from fire is occupying the earnest attention of 

 many of the States of the American Union; so much so that in the State of 

 Wisconsin there is being pressed before the Senate a bill to provide for the 

 burning of all the limbs, tops and other refuse within certain counties of the 

 State. The Act, of course, is meeting with considerable opposition and it is 

 not yet known whether it will become law or not. However, marked progress 

 is being made and public attention is being drawn to the necessity of better 

 fire protection. I trust that the day will yet come when New Brunswick 

 lumbermen shall be compelled to take care of the limbs and tops of trees and 

 see that they are carefully burned or otherwise destroyed. 



In the State of Washington, the Pacific North West Forest and Con- 

 servation Association, composed of the Lumber Leagues of Washington, 

 Idaho, Oregon and Montana has been organized in Spokane to obtain cer- 

 tain appropriations to preserve standing timber in private and public 

 domains from destruction by fire. The State of Washington has about seven 

 hundred thousand acres of standing timber and has asked for an appropria- 

 tion of $50,000 to carry on the work of forest conservation in that State .dur- 

 ing the coming year. For some time past $25,000 was appropriated yearly, 

 for this purpose, but it is claimed that $50,000 is not a bit too large for 

 the purpose. One prominent lumberman speaking of the situation says, 

 "That when it is realized that from one thousand feet of timber burned in 

 forest fires the owner loses from $2.00 to $2.50 and the manufacturer from 

 $8.00 to $12.00 it becomes apparent that something must be done to protect 

 one of the chief assets of the Commonwealth." If an appropriation of 

 $50,000 is necessary to protect 700,000 acres of standing timber in the State 

 of Washington, one can readily estimate how much would be necessary to 

 properly protect and keep down to a minimum the losses from fire in New 

 Brunswick on seven million acres of Crown Lands. When, too, we realize 

 that the British Government is putting forward a scheme for reforestation 

 on the British Isles at a cost of $10,000,000 per year we can more readily 

 appreciate the absolute necessity of preserving the great national asset we 

 now have ; as by this course of preservation from fire and reckless cutting we 

 can not only protect, but can actually build up and make greater from year 

 to year the valuable heritage we now have. 



We have also in this Province a very large quantity of bogs or heath- 

 land for which it is advisable that some scheme of drainage should be adopted 

 so as to convert them into timber areas. Along this line we are desirous of 



