84 CANADIAN FOSESTET ASSOCIATION. 



country and to his sporting nature, as to allow his camp fire to get beyond 

 his control. No true sport is guilty of such careless and destructive habits. 

 Unfortunately, however, every man who wears a sporting jacket and car- 

 ries a fishing rod, is not a fisherman. Between the first day of May and the 

 last day of June is the season when these imitation fishermen are found in 

 great numbers through the forest, and this is the time when prevention 

 should be the watchword of all good citizens, for there is no time in the 

 year when fire will run so quickly as between the above dates, due to the 

 lack of green vegetation to cover the dead twigs and grasses of the past 

 year. What is the best way to deal with this condition, I am not prepared 

 to say, but lovers of this sport should at least organize themselves into an 

 association for the purpose of instilling into the numerous unthinking mem- 

 bers of their fraternity, a few wholesome lessons of the value of the forest 

 and thenecessities for keeping it green. There are many who advocate the 

 passing of a law that would exact a license fee from everyone who wished 

 to take a day's fishing. This license would compel the holder to report to 

 an officer when and where he was going, and notify the same officer of his 

 return, thus keeping a record of all fishing parties in the woods; this law to 

 cover others besides fishermen. Others advocate more stringent legisla- 

 tion. It is therefore quite evident that the people are determined, if pos- 

 sible, to prevent fire being set in this way, and doubtless the co-operation of 

 all interested would assist very materially in solving an otherwise hard 

 problem. 



The blueberry trade has become quite an active industry in many parts 

 of New Brunswick; but I fear the efforts of many who have attempted to 

 improve the crop of this fruit, have been very much misdirected. The blue- 

 berry needs some pruning, and a light fire run over the berry patch early in 

 the spring or late in the fall has the desired effect, but to burn these patches 

 severely, as they too often are, not only destroys the roots of the plants, 

 but, at the same time, endangers timber property much more valuable. 

 These fires might be lessened by a campaign of education as to proper 

 methods of blue berry culture in districts that are interested in the trade. 



While the danger of fires, started by farmers clearing land in the older 

 settled districts is much less now than it was some years ago, yet it is re- 

 markably strange that some farmers living in these old settlements have 

 not heeded the lessons of past experience, and too frequently do we hear 

 of the dreadful destruction of miles of timber land by a fire set by a farmer 

 who, through carelessness, failed to observe, or refused to comply with, 

 the laws governing the clearing of land. The hope of our Province is to a 

 great extent its agricultural development, but agricultural development 

 should not be at the cost of our forest wealth. We want more people, and 

 we must have more farmers if our Province is to prosper as it should, but 

 protect us from opening up for settlement districts that are not now, nor 

 ever will be, suited for farming purposes. This would prevent a repetition 

 of occurrences of past years, where settlement resulted in destruction of the 

 forest and desertion of the settlement a short time afterwards. Better by 

 far extend and improve our transportation facilities through the districts 

 that are already cleared, and which are either partially abandoned or 

 worked in an indifferent way, owing to the lack of those facilities, and keep 



