CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 73 



square mile for reforestation, while for the same expenditure they could 

 protect five hundred square miles of standing timber. It was more impor- 

 tant to protect the immediate crop than to plant trees to mature in a cen- 

 tury. However, when Mr. W. C. J. Hall, the Superintendent of the Bureau 

 of Forestry, had completed his system of fire protection, they would con- 

 sider the advisability of planting along the river fronts. He did not think 

 it would pay to plant more than three miles on each side of the waterways, 

 but would leave to Nature the work of reforesting the interior. 



Mr. Piche urged the formation of branches of the Canadian Forestry 

 Association in each Province, so that churches, schools, and societies might 

 be enlisted and the people thus get to understand the need of Forestry. He 

 also urged the necessity of adopting a general log rule for the whole coun- 

 try. He advocated a rule based on the cubic foot, as recently adopted in 

 Maine, in the place of the obsolete rules based on the imaginary board foot. 



WORK OF THE DOMINION FORESTRY BRANCH. 



Mr. Abraham Knechtel, F.E., Inspector of Dominion Forest Reserves, 

 described the work of the Forestry Branch. This was divided into three 

 parts: I. The forests. 2. Forest reserves. 3. Tree planting on the 

 prairies. The chief danger in regard to the forest was fire, and this was 

 met by fire wardens who patrolled the woods and warned travellers against 

 letting fires run. New lines of railway were particularly guarded. When it 

 was desired to dispose of timber, the Government had a survey made and 

 placed an upset price on the berth, which was then advertised for three 

 months and sold to the highest bidder. The land was leased at a ground 

 rent of $5 per mile, and there was also a stumpage fee of 50 cents per 

 thousand. There were large timber tracts in the north; just how large no 

 one knew, but it was expected three exploring parties would be sent into 

 them in the summer of 1910 to gain information. In regard to the forest 

 reserves the fire rangers there were employed by the year, and each had to 

 provide himself with a horse. Fire guards were plowed in the denuded 

 areas, around and through the reserves, and fire lanes were cut through 

 the woods to give access to different parts, and to provide a line where a 

 fire could be stopped. The forest floor was cleared where possible. This 

 was done by allowing settlers to take the dead timber. When this was 

 removed they were allowed under restrictions to cut green timber. Settlers' 

 slashings had been a great danger, but the Forestry Branch now got them 

 to take out all parts of four inches and upward, and to cut the branches oft 

 the tops, so that they would lie flat and rot quickly. The Branch was now 

 considering the advisability of allowing portable mills to go into the re- 

 serves under close restrictions, the object being to cut out mature and over- 

 mature timber. The forest reserves in Saskatchewan had been made also 

 game preserves, and it was likely the same would be done in Manitoba. 

 Surveys were being made to ascertain the amount of timber on the reserves 

 and also what other territory ought to be placed in reserves. Last year he 

 spent ten days traveling through the country on the eastern slope of the 

 Rockies, and he endorsed Hon. Mr. Sifton's intention that this should be 

 made into a reservation. The third side of the work was tree planting on 



