100 CANADIAN FOEESTEY ASSOCIATION. 



tions for forty years. The answer to this question, I feel assured, is, that 

 where the old seed trees of large mature growth have been cut away, the 

 seedlings starting from an immature growth have a tendency to reach ma- 

 turity before they have obtained any great size, therefore, the necessity 

 of protecting, wherever possible, the old, seedy spruce trees, which will 

 give seeds of a better growth than the small trees. 



The Government regulations in the Province of New Brunswick to-day 

 permit the cutting of nothing smaller than a tree that will make a log 16 

 feet long and 9 inches at the top end, and to run such trees up and to take 

 the top out to 5 inches. Although it seems very difficult to get the lumber- 

 men throughout the Province generally to conform to the regulation re- 

 quiring them to take out the tops of their trees to 5 inches, I must congrat- 

 ulate them in trying to meet this regulation, in so far as it seems possible 

 for them to do so. And I think that with these tops already down, roads 

 swamped out and the very little extra exertion needed in yarding the same 

 (with the exception of limbing) if the matter is carefully thought out, the 

 operators will find that there is very little extra expense in getting these 

 tops to the mills, with the exception of the extra cost of driving. 



The fir growth among our spruce has been allowed to be cut to any 

 size. For a great many years this wood has been looked upon as a weed, 

 and stumpage on the same has been very much less than that paid on the 

 spruce, but we find to-day that the lumbermen are getting nearly as much 

 for this wood as they are for spruce. Of course, in the British market they 

 do not like to take fir if they can help it, but it is a question whether this 

 tree should not have some protection. But as it is a tree of very fast 

 growth, seeding every year, and growing up everywhere in the Province, it 

 seems to be protecting itself. 



FOREST FIRE PROTECTION. 



We now come to Forest Fire Protection, which I think is generaly un- 

 derstood to be the only practical side of Forestry which will appeal to 

 our lumbermen in this Province. In the first place the Province is divided 

 into four districts, which are respectively under the control of four chief 

 fire rangers. These men have under them altogether throughout the Prov- 

 ince some one hundred and fifty fire rangers or woods patrolmen, all under 

 one nominal head. The individual appointments are made from year to 

 year by the chief fire rangers, as they deem the time advisable to go on in 

 the dry season. These men are supposed to continually patrol the woods, 

 keeping a diary for each day, stating where they were, the distance trav- 

 elled, etc. At the end of the month bills are made out in accordance with 

 this diary, sworn to before a Justice of the Peace, and checked by the chief 

 fire rangers in the respective districts. This gives us an idea where these 

 men have been located, the actual time they have been on their work, and 

 what has taken place generally. Although this system costs a great deal of 

 money, and has proved serviceable, it has been suggested to the Govern- 

 ment that it does not fill the requirements of the case altogether. The sys- 

 tem of woods patrol by fire rangers has been deemed inadequate for the 

 following reasons: In the first place, if there is a fire on one side of a 



