CANADIAN FOEESTEY ASSOCIATION. 101 



ridge, and the fire rangers are patroling on the opposite side of the ridge, 

 the wind blowing from the direction of the fire rangers towards the fire 

 would not allow the rangers to have any knowledge of the fire. Again, 

 fires at a distance denoted by heavy smoke cause fire rangers to move in 

 the direction from which the smoke appears to come. In a great many 

 cases these fires prove to be altogether differently situated from where the 

 ranger supposed them to be. Taking these facts into consideration, the 

 system inaugurated by the State of Maine has proved very much more ef- 

 ficient than that used in the Province. Their principal dependence in locat- 

 ing fires has been placed on what are called lookouts or stations upon the 

 height of land, hills, mountains, etc. From these they have run telephone 

 lines to the nearest settlements and have thus been enabled to get assistance; 

 and from their situation on these hills have been able to locate for their men 

 the exact position of these fires. We are very well situated in the Province 

 of New Brunswick for a similar system, which could be inaugurated at 

 very small expense. Our Province is dotted by small villages or settlements. 

 These settlements were originally taken up in the heart of the forests, and 

 as it has always been the custom to select the very best hard wood lands 

 (hardwood ridges) for farming purposes, generally you will find them on 

 ground that gives them a view of a very large area around. It has been 

 suggested to the Government that in each of these settlements, which are 

 thus suitably located, there be one man appointed with power to employ 

 help to put out any fire that may start in the area within view from the set- 

 tlements. He, and the men under him, would be paid for the actual time 

 they may be working on the fire. This scheme could be developed in a 

 great many ways, and I have no doubt some such system as this would be of 

 great benefit. 



One of the great menaces to our forests is the clearing of lands for 

 farming purposes by the plan known as "burning fallow." The Govern- 

 ment has been asked, among other matters, to have some Legislation 

 passed that would prevent settlers from clearing ground without first no- 

 tifying the fire warden of the district (as well as the neighbors, which is 

 now provided by law) and that would make it necessary that the fire war- 

 den be on the ground before such fire was started. Legislation of this kind, 

 providing a heavy fine, in case of non-compliance, would prove very bene- 

 ficial. 



Again, the opening up of new settlements in this Province for farm 

 purposes has, in the past, proved one of the most expensive and wasteful 

 operations that the Government has had to contend with. The timber that 

 has been destroyed by fires emanating from these settlements in the past 

 fifty years has been something appalling, and no one, unless he has had 

 intimate relations with the lumber business in different sections of this Prov- 

 ince can form any adequate idea of the great loss settlers have caused. And 

 the conditions we find to-day are the worst part of it. Settlements that 

 were opened up forty or fifty years ago, with the approval of the Govern- 

 ment and at considerable expense, after having destroyed all the timber 

 within an area of twenty miles in some cases, have become deserted farms 

 and are being taken over by lumbermen for the second growth^that is now 

 coming on them. Most any of these farms can be bought, buildings and all, 



