66 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



Fernow said: that we have to consider not only what timber is there now, 

 but also what the reproduction is. It is not a question of what timber we 

 have standing at the present time ; it is what timber we are going to have 

 20, 30, 40, or 100 years from now. We should look beyond the immediate 

 present, and I think it is very important that a careful study should be made 

 of the reproductive power of our timber, both by natural methods and, when 

 the natural method is not perpetuating the forest, by artificial means. On 

 the Dominion Reserves we have begun a series of experiments to test the 

 success of some of the artificial methods. Mr. Knechtel will speak of that 

 to-morrow morning, so I do not wish to enlarge upon it now. (Applause.) 



MR. WHITMAN : Speaking about the chief rangers, there is no com- 

 parison between the slopes in British Columbia and what we have on Domin- 

 ion lands or in Nova Scotia. While it might be possible for a fire in British 

 Columbia to start at one end of a chief ranger's district while he was at the 

 other, that is not a problem that worries us in Nova Scotia. We have a chief 

 ranger for each fire district, over each municipality. The chief ranger is 

 in complete charge and control of that municipality. He also has the right 

 to appoint as many sub-rangers as he thinks necessary, and every sub-ranger 

 under him has certain executive powers himself. They can call out as many 

 men in each municipality as are required to put out a fire. In that way we 

 keep constant watch. Besides the sub-rangers we can also call upon any 

 district to supply men; to send 40 men into one district and take them into 

 another, and they must go or else be fined. Besides these chief rangers in 

 each municipality we desire to have a Chief Hanger for the whole Province 

 each municipality we desire to have a Chief Ranger for the whole Province. 

 The lumbermen who have taken the initiative in this matter have not asked 

 that this appointment be^made. We have been feeling our way in the mean- 

 time; but when we ask for a Chief Ranger for the whole Province we wish 

 to have all the information we can get at such a meeting as this and appoint 

 a man who will be not only the Chief Ranger, tut also the Chief Forester, 

 and adopt a policy that this Provincial Forester can carry out for the whole 

 country. (Applause.) 



Mr. J. M. MACOUN: I would like to speak of the utilization of our peat 

 bogs for fuel purposes. I think this question has not come before our Asso- 

 ciation, although it is one on which foresters, notably Dr. Fernow, have been 

 working; although not much in this country. For at least 20 of the last 27 

 years my work has been in the parts of Canada lying between Hudson's Bay 

 and the Mackenzie River. That is the part of Canada in which most of our 

 large peat bogs are found. Without going into figures because we usually 

 have too many figures at our meetings I will venture to say that between 

 Hudson's Bay and the Mackenzie River there are at least as many acres of 

 peat bogs as there are of green growing timber. I don't mean on timbered 

 land, because we know a great part of that country has been denuded. But 

 I am quite certain that there are as many acres of peat bogs as there are of 



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