12 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1914- 



Winnipeg to the British Columbia bound- 

 ary. In the Railway Belt practically all 

 of the Coast District and the Dry Belt has 

 also been examined by Dominion foresters. 

 Approximately three million trees were 

 distributed in 1913 by Dominion Forestry 

 Nursery Station at Indian Head, making 

 a total of twenty-four million trees fur- 

 nished by it to the settlers on the western 

 prairies. The trees chiefly planted are 

 green ash, Manitoba maple, cottonwood, 

 willow and Eussian poplar; and of the 

 conifers, spruce, larch and pine. In 1901 

 only four acres were devoted to tree- 

 culture at Indian Head. Sixty-seven acres 

 are now required, and there has been such 

 an increase in the demands for trees that 

 a branch nursery was established in 1913 

 at Saskatoon, which will take a share in 

 the distribution of tree seedlings this 

 coming spring. Smaller nurseries have 

 also been developed on some of the re- 

 serves to provide trees for reforestation. 

 The Spruce Woods nursery now contains 

 over 200,000 seedlings and transplants. 

 Conifers are preferred for planting on 

 reserves, and to secure seed for this pur- 

 pose the rangers, last summer, collected 

 over 100 bushels of cones. 



But although the development of field 

 forestry has been rapid, other branches of 

 the work have not been neglected. The 

 administrative and office staff at the 

 Braucli headquarters in Ottawa now num- 

 bers forty, of whom eight are technically 

 trained foresters. These latter are en- 

 gaged in administrative work, in the 

 accumulating of statistics concerning the 

 lumber and allied industries, in the 

 draughting of forest maps from field re- 

 ports, and in the preparation and editing 

 of Branch Bulletins, circulars and news- 

 paper articles designed to stimulate public 

 interest in practical forestry. The head 

 office library now contains 1,300 books on 

 Forestry and allied subjects, and in Am- 

 erica is second only to the library of the 

 United States Forest Service. Forty-five 

 periodicals are subscribed for, not includ- 

 ing forestry publications received in ex- 

 change from all over the globe. There are 

 also 5,000 good negatives now on file in 

 the library, which are available to public 

 speakers and journalists for illustration of 

 lectures, or press articles on forestry 

 topics. Statistical information for similar 

 use is also furnished free. Not the least 

 important branch of head-office work is 

 the keeping of a cost record of improve- 

 ment work. This, in the words of Mr. 

 Dwight, who is in charge of the Adminis- 

 tration Office, ' is now a valuable source 

 of information in regard to the expendi- 

 tures of money and rangers' services, and 

 the progress of the actual work on the 

 various projects under construction.' This 

 is sound business tactics, w^hich many 

 disparagers of forestry practice would do 



well to emulate. 



The scientific side of forestry is also 

 being developed at the Forest Products 

 Laboratories recently established by the 

 Forestry Branch at McGill University. Mr. 

 A. G. Mclntyre, the Superintendent, has 

 already found emjjloyment for two as- 

 sistants in the work of investigating the 

 physical properties and possible new uses 

 of Canadian woods. The results obtained 

 will be extremely valuable to pulp and 

 paper manufacturers, and to contractors 

 and builders who seek cheaper native 

 substitutes for expensive imported woods. 



The tendency is for government forestry 

 to become more and more self-supporting 

 as time progresses. It has long been so 

 in British India, where forestry practice 

 is highly developed; it is rapidly becoming 

 so in the United States in spite of an 

 annual expenditure of over 4% million 

 dollars for forestry purposes, it will soon 

 be so in Canada in spite of the fact that 

 the revenue from Dominion Forest Re- 

 serves for the fiscal vear ending March 

 31, 1913, barely exceeded $23,000, derived 

 principally from the disposal of small 

 amounts of timber to settlers and miners. 

 But since the passage, in 1913, of the new 

 Forest Reserve Regulations, permitting the 

 grazing of stock to the full capacity of 

 these reserves, a very important new 

 source of revenue has been provided. The 

 revenue from grazing on the National 

 Forests of the United States last year 

 amounted to over one million dollars. On 

 Dominion Forest Reserves four million 

 cattle, at the minimum charge of twenty- 

 five cents a head, would produce a similar 

 annual revenue, and the forest reserves 

 should ultimately provide range for the 

 number. 



The present revenue from Dominion 

 timber lands under licence now approxi- 

 mates one-half million dollars, but al- 

 though a considerable portion of these 

 timber limits are within forest reserves, 

 the revenue is at present handled by an- 

 other branch of the Department of the 

 Interior. 



Other natural resources are exhaustible; 

 the forests can be rendered permanently 

 productive; other resources are valuable 

 for themselves alone; on the maintenance 

 of the forests depends the perpetuation of 

 Canadian game, and also all industries 

 relying for their existence on a continuous 

 water supply, which the forests alone can 

 adequatelv regulate. 



G. E. B. 



Authorities agree that at least 60 per 

 cent, of the tree as it stands in the forest 

 is wasted in converting it into lumber, and 

 that 25 per cent, of the trees remain in 

 the forests to rot or be destroyed in forest 

 fires. 



