Scientific Investigation Urged 



29 



Special mention may be made of the suc- 

 cessful lights put up by the 8t. Maurice 

 Forest Protective Association ami the Lower 

 Ottawa Valley Forest Protective Association. 

 There has also been a notable improvement 

 of the fire protection along railway lines, 

 from which system of protection unJer the 

 direction of the Railway Commission of 

 Canada the Government railways are still 

 exduiled. 



per acre and all lands east of the Cascades 

 bearing over /),(»00 feet per acre of mer- 

 chantable timber are reserved from entry. 

 In British Columbia the protection and ad- 

 ministration of all timber lands has been 

 j)lacc<l by statute under a forest board con- 

 sisting of trained men. 



Conclusion. 



Additions to Forest Reser\t:s. 



Very considerable additions were made to 

 the Dominion Forest Reserves in the western 

 provinces. These additions were chiefly in 

 Saskatchewan where 7,879 square miles of 

 land unsuited to farming were added to the 

 already existing reserves. It should be 

 noted that this was a development for which 

 the Association hail pressed. The total 

 areas now in forest reserves under the Do- 

 minion Forestry Branch are: Alberta, 12,- 

 462,720 acres"; Saskatchewan, 6,195,200 

 acres; Manitoba, 2,60l>.0S0 acres; and Bri- 

 tish Columbia 1,7;19,360 acres, a total of 

 2.3,02-t,640 acres of reserves under the Do- 

 minion Government. 



There have been some increases in the 

 forest reserves in the dififerent provinces, 

 which according to latest figures obtainable 

 now stand as follows: Quebec, 107,997,513 

 acres; Ontario. 14,430,720 acres, and in 

 British Columbia under provincial jurisdic- 

 tion, 2,474,240 acres. In the last named 

 province, in addition to the above delimited 

 reserves, all lauds west of the Cascades bear- 

 ing more than 8,000 feet board measure 



Before the war broke out the question of 

 the supply of pit props and other mining 

 timber in the Maritime Provinces was oc- 

 cupying the attention of the Dominion For- 

 estry Branch. The cutting off of the supply 

 of this timber and of poles by the closing 

 of the Baltic resulted in a visit of commis- 

 sioners from Great Britain. Whether or not 

 a trade in these lines can be developed with 

 Europe the iiicident draws attention to the 

 increasing importance of timber lands of the 

 Maritime Provinces. 



In spite of the war the three Canadian 

 forestry schools report almost the same num- 

 ber of students in attendance as last year. 



So long as war lasts it will probably be 

 impossible for the Association to inaugurate 

 an aggressive campaign, but when war ceases 

 two prime duties seem before it, one to re- 

 commence the work in Nova Scotia in order 

 to assist in the solution of the peculiar 

 problems of that province, and the other 

 to forward the movement for a Dominiort 

 wide convention to take stock of the whole 

 forest situation and to see what progress 

 has been made since the National Forestry 

 Congress of 1906. 



Scientific Investigation Urged. 



Mr. A. C. Macdonell, M.P., Urges Linking Up of Universities and Business — What the 

 Dominion Forest Products Laboratories Are Doing. 



Knowing the benefits which are to be 

 derived from the application of trained 

 knowledge to industrial problems, particu- 

 larly as related to our rapidly developing 

 and changing forest industry, the Canadian 

 Forestry Association for a considerable time 

 urged upon the Dominion Government the 

 establishment of a Forest Products La- 

 boratory. This advocacy was successful, 

 and in 1913 Hon. Dr. Roche, Minister of 

 the Interior, established such a laboratory 

 under the Dominion Forestry Branch. For 

 reasons of equipment and otherwise the 



laboratory was located at Montreal in con- 

 nection with ^fcGill University. It is no 

 exaggeration to say that there are literally 

 thousands of facts which Canadian lumber- 

 men, pulp makers, paper makers, builders, 

 railways, electrical tranmission companies, 

 and manufacturers desire to know about 

 Canadian timbers and woods. To take just 

 one illustration: a large proportion of the 

 trees in our forests are known as 'weeds' 

 because no profitable use has been found 

 for their wood. If certain trees could be 

 u.'^ed to make pulp and paper it would 



29 



