Canadian Forestry Journal, July, 1915 



127 



trolled by the St. Maurice Forest Pro- 

 tective Association no less tliau 80 

 fires last year were traced positively 

 to settlers — a serious proportion, but 

 at the same time a great improvement 

 on the previous suunner when no less 

 than 151 out of 306 fires were of the 

 settlers" doing. 



Quebec has undoubtedly made a 

 courageous start in applying the per- 

 mit system, establishing a closed sea- 

 son during which no fire shall be set 

 unless a permit is issued by an officer 

 of the Forest Protection Branch. The 

 administration of this law has been 

 conscientious and, with wider knowl- 

 edge of its good objects and an in- 

 creased staff of officers, may intro- 

 duce the province to an advanced 

 stage of fire immunity. Scores of 

 writs of summons have been served 

 upon guilty farmers and when local 

 magistrates apply statutory penalties 

 with the same thoroughness that char- 

 acterizes the ranger's end of the work, 

 few communities will further resist 

 the Department's orders. The splen- 

 did service rendered by the clergy of 

 Quebec to the cause of forest protec- 

 tion doubtless will prove effective in 

 reducing hostility to the ])ermit law. 



An Open Confession. 



The culpability of the settlers is not 

 a phrase to shield the culpability of 

 others. One discovers references such 

 as the following wherever Canadian 

 forest fires are Avritten of: '""We have 

 had several fires, all arising from set- 

 tlers but all except one extinguished 

 or under control." 



And again, in a Watertown. X.Y., 

 interview Avith a pulp company's pre- 

 sident : ' ' There were many forest fires 

 in that section because of the fact that 

 the Canadian farmers attempted to 

 l)urn out stumps and brush on their 

 clearings and clid not give proper at- 

 tention to the w^ork. At one point the 

 logs were so thick in the river that fire 

 ignited their exposed surfaces and 

 caused such a blaze that a steam fire 

 engine had to be shi])ped in from a 

 distance of fortv miles." 



From the settlers' point of view, 

 many excuses are within reach. Ran- 

 gers in the employ of the St. Maurice 

 Forest Protective Association have 

 been told repeatedly by "homestead- 

 ers" located along the line of the 

 Transcontinental below La Tuque 

 that to fulfill their Government obli- 

 gations tl'.f^'y must set out fires no mat- 

 ter what the season may be. 



Somt of these men have admit to'd 

 in tlie presence of inspectors that their 

 lots were taken not for cultivation 

 purposes but solely for the valuable 

 timber thereon. (This amply bears 

 out a statement regarding the 'Fake 

 Settler' published in the June issue of 

 the Journal.) One party frankly in- 

 formed an inspector that with the as- 

 sistance of a small boy and horse he 

 had cleared over $1,100 during the 

 winter of 1913-14 and over $500 dur- 

 ing the following winter. "When asked 

 what his intentions were, once the tim- 

 ber was cleared from the land, he con- 

 fessed that he would move on to bet- 

 ter "pastures' as the soil of the lot was 

 of little use for anything but wood 

 crops. 



British Columbia's Example. 



It is stated of the British Columbia 

 regulations which compel all settlers 

 to observe a close season for slash 

 burning or to take out a permit, that 

 the farmers are giving the Act willing 

 co-operation. In 1914. out of 11.523 

 permits issued, only 128 permit fires 

 escaped bevond control, forming 7 per 

 cent of the 1,832 forest fires. Of the 

 128 fires causing trouble and some 

 loss, even under the permit system, it 

 is instructive to note that many 

 escaped control because of sudden 

 high winds which in at least one case 

 lifted the body of the fire 300 feet 

 into the adjoining woods. The per- 

 mit system does not pretend to obviate 

 all fires, but who will doubt that it 

 offers the most sensible and economi- 

 cal solution to the problem of settlers' 

 slash ? 



