140 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



advent of Messrs. Bedard and Piche into the Government service, a begin- 

 ning has been made toward intelligent enforcement of the laws, and we hope 

 there will be no retrogression. 



The second difficulty is that there is no guarantee to the limit holder 

 that a change in Government officers, may not result in an increase in ground 

 rent and stumpage dues which may take away entirely his margin of profit. 



Government regulations forbid the cutting of trees below the following 

 diameter limits; spruce of all kinds, not growing in swamps, 11 inches in 

 diameter at three feet from the ground ; balsam 9 inches ; white pine 12 

 inches; and, black spruce growing in swamps, 7 inches. Stumps must be 

 cut not higher than one foot above the swell of the roots, and the trunk taken 

 to a point where the diameter of the remaining top is not more than six 

 inches. All wood used for roads, skids, etc., trees left branched or lying in 

 the woods must be paid for at the same rate as other timber. There is a fine 

 of three dollars for each tree cut below the diameter limit. There is practi- 

 cally no enforcement of these laws. Theoretically the cullers or sealers are 

 Government officers charged with the duty of seeing to the following of 

 these rules. They are paid by the lumbermen, but are for the most part, 

 men of insufficient knowledge and training, and are so over burdened with 

 work that they cannot look out for the Government interest. 



During the whole time I have been in the woods I have spent nearly all 

 of every year at the work in the woods with the jobbers and among the camps, 

 and I have yet to see a Government employee come into the woods and make 

 an examination to see whether the Government regulations were complied 

 with. (Applause). Now, that is a pretty strong statement. 



SENATOR EDWARDS : Those are not the conditions under which we lum- 

 ber. Every portion of our limit is inspected. They have given you a lot of 

 latitude down there. 



MR. WILSON : The Government have a regulation that the stump can 

 be cut no higher than one foot from the swell of the roots, and you can go 

 anywhere between the Lake St. John region and the head of the Mattawa 

 River, which is almost to the head of the Rideau River, and you won't find 

 a stump in the cuttings two years after that is under three feet high, and in 

 the Lake St. John region you will find stumps five or six feet high. 



DELEGATE : How can you cut down to the swell of the root ? 



MR. WILSON: Make the jobbers cut before the *snow gets so deep. 

 (Applause.) 



DELEGATE : You are not doing that ? 



MR. WILSON : We are doing it. I venture to say there is not a stump 

 in our cuttings that is over eight inches above the ground. (Applause.) I 

 have had our inspectors over this year, and we made the contractors shovel 

 away the snow. 



