CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 23 



While this might be used as a demonstration forest for lumbering, we 

 have something better than this-* the real lumber camps, with bosses 

 always ready to give students information for lumber reports. So far this 

 has been secured by short visits- to camps, but next year, perhaps, if the 

 offer of the Miramichi Lumber Company is still open, we may give our 

 students the chance to study lumbering at first hand, with j:he woods boss 

 as the stage manager, and the students as the main actors. We have all the 

 stage setting, including green background, real snow, deacon seat, red-hot 

 stove and live lumber-jacks for as nice a little sylvan play of three months 

 in a lumber camp as was ever staged. This will give us an immense advan- 

 tage over the school located in the city, which must plan long and expensive 

 trips for the Seniors to study lumbering. Here, these operations can be 

 looked up in order, from felling to driving, at little expense, during the 

 Christmas and Easter vacations. The driving is done, in ordinary seasons, 

 about May ist, and would require a short trip to some of the nearest 

 operations. 



There are also located at Fredericton the booms of the St. John River 

 Log Driving Company, through which pass each year on their way to the 

 mills over one hundred and fifty million feet of logs belonging to different 

 owners. The separation and disposal of these logs is an immense business 

 in itself. This affords the best opportunity in the spring for studying the 

 work and cost of scaling, booming, rafting and towing logs; while the mills 

 at Fredericton and St. John give the student a chance to see saw-mill ma- 

 chinery in operation and learn the cost of equipment, labor and finished 

 products. 



In some parts of the Province, as on the Miramichi and elsewhere, an 

 idea can be obtained of the export trade in various lines, such as deals, 

 shingles and lath, and a comparison made of market relations. The stu- 

 dents are required to make a report on all these points covered, according 

 to a definite outline furnished them. After proper corrections and sugges- 

 tions have been made, all of this data will be gathered together to form a 

 thesis which this year will be submitted by Seniors in Forestry in competi- 

 tion for the Fredericton Gold Medal. This thesis will not only systema- 

 tize and fix in mind the various operations studied, but, it is hoped, will be 

 a valuable contribution to the knowledge of lumbering in the Province. 



A course is given in technology, in which the student gains a knowledge 

 of the structure of wood, sees how this is related to seasoning, durability, 

 and strength learns to identify the main commercial species. The minor 

 industries also, in which New Brunswick abounds, receive special atten- 

 tion. x As far as possible the students will be given a chance to visit and 

 study rossing, pulp and paper mills, extract and wood distillation plants, etc. 

 This requires considerable knowledge of the chemical properties of wood 

 and opens up a large field of investigation. Managers of such plants can 

 assist us greatly by sending us samples of such products in different stages 

 of their manufacture, since all this is part of the Forester's knowledge and 

 training. If, as Professor Fisher says, "Successful lumbering to-day con- 

 sists in good organization and small economies," then, as prices increase, 

 the study of wood utilization will demand increasing attention. 



