CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 101 



Again, in respect to population the East has the advantage. When a 

 forest fire starts in Ontario or Quebec, you can just go out to the 100-acre 

 farms, and to the numerous small villages and soon have a force of men to 

 put it under control. But in the Northwest the population is scarce, railroads 

 are not so numerous, and telephonic communication is not so good. In that 

 country we cannot count much on putting out forest fires and so we have to 

 be all the more diligent to see that fires do not get started. 



The reserves are under constant patrol, summer and winter. During the 

 danger periods the rangers lay aside all other duties and guard the forest 

 against fire. In 1908, we had only two fires of any consequence, one in the 

 Pines Reserve which burned over 22 square miles, destroying no merchantable 

 timber, and one in the Turtle Mountains, extending over 28 square miles, 

 mostly covered with grass. In each of these fires, however, large areas of 

 young reproduction growth was destroyed. 



Last year we began a practice which we know saved the reserves several 

 fires. It is a well known fact that, in the early spring, the fields become bare 

 and the grass dry before the snow is all gone from the woods. While such 

 conditions existed the forest rangers burned the meadows along the reserve 

 boundaries. Fires, coming in from the prairie, met this wide fire line and 

 died out for want of fuel. Around the Riding Mountains the meadows were 

 burned for ninety miles, around the Duck Mountains for forty-two miles, and 

 around the Porcupine Mountains for thirty miles, all these in the most dan- 

 gerous places. It is the intention to extend this practice to all the reserves 

 wherever it is practicable, and to carry it out upon an extensive scale. 



Plowed fire guards also will be made around and across some of the 

 reserves. The forest ranger on the Cypress Hills has instructions to plow a 

 guard of four furrows entirely around the reserve, and outside of this, four 

 rods distant from it a second guard. Then, on calm days, with the help of two 

 or three men he is to burn the grass between the two guards. On the Spruce 

 Woods Reserve several guards will be plowed, one of which will run along 

 each side of the Canadian Northern Railway, which crosses the reserve. 



Roads along the boundaries and through the reserves are being con- 

 structed to aid in fighting fire. One hundred and fifty miles was made this 

 year. In certain places these roads are very much needed. For instance, I 

 noticed in my inspection of the Turtle Mountain Reserve that the roads all 

 run north and south. There is no way of going promptly and conveniently 

 east and west. The fires mostly come in from Dakota, which lies to the south. 

 Therefore, to facilitate the fighting of fire the forest ranger was instructed to 

 make a road following the southern boundary. This will not only make it 

 easier to move about on the reserve, but it will serve as a fire line from which 

 back-firing may be done. 



REFORESTING. 



The Department is making an attempt to reforest some of the areas 

 denuded by fire. From some experiments made last spring, it would appear 

 that this might be accomplishable by putting down a few seeds with a hand- 

 ful of sand over them at each place where we wish to have a forest tree. This 

 was tried on the Turtle Mountains and on the Spruce Woods Reserve. In 

 the former it was successful, in the latter unsuccessful. On the Turtle Moun- 

 tains the seed was thus placed under poplars and among long grass. The 

 following species were planted : White Pine, Norway Pine, Jack Pine, Bull 

 Pine, White Spruce, Red Spruce, Colorado felue Spruce, Engelmann Spruce 

 and Balsam. Among the poplars the seed was evidently taken by birds, 



