166 



Canadian Forestry Journal^ August, ipi^. 



THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



AEROPLANE HUNTS FOREST FIRES. 



"The Municipality and the Conservation of the 

 Forests" is the title of an address to be delivered 

 on August 26th at the loth annual convention of 

 the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities by Mr. 

 F. C. Whitman, President of the Canadian For- 

 estry Association. The meetings of the Union 

 will be held at New Glasgow and the programmes 

 contain a range of subjects practical and stimula- 

 ting. 



RIVER DRIVERS UNDER CONTROL. 



A great betterment of fire conditions in Quebec 

 Province has come about this year through the 

 placing of a special ranger with each drive crew. 

 This has reduced a usually prolific cause of fires 

 to a minimum, only one blaze having so far been 

 attributed to this source. In past seasons the 

 indifference of the drivers to the safety of the 

 forest about them has been the cause of wholesale 

 trouble. 



ENCOURAGE PLANTATIONS. 



Other communities throughout Canada might 

 take pattern by the Parish of St. Jacques de 

 Piles, Quebec, which entered into agreement with 

 the Laurentide Company Ltd., of Grand Mere, 

 not to raise the taxes on lands used for tree 

 planting for a period of twenty-five years, at the 

 end of which time the agreement can be renewed. 

 The company will continue its plantations in the 

 parish until all available land has been placed 

 under forest crop. Fire lines have been cut 

 around the plantations and along the roads. 

 Model highways also have been constructed. 



ADJUSTING TAXATION. 



Hon. Jules Allard, Minister of Lands and 

 Forests, Quebec Province, has under consideration 

 the better regulation of taxation on lands used 

 for reforestation. It is understood that an an- 

 nouncement will be made at the next session of 

 the Legislature. 



WHO IS THIS MEMBER? 



The Secretary of the Association is in receipt 

 of a letter postmarked 'Hudson Heights, P.Q.' 

 and containing a one dollar bill, together with a 

 membership card which the sender has forgotten 

 to fill in with his name and address. If the party 

 will please write to the Secretary credit will be 

 given him for the amount. 



STUDENTS ON FOREST SURVEY. 



Six graduate students in the department of 

 forestry, Cornell University, have recently com- 

 pleted a detailed working plan for a 3,500 acre 

 tract in the Catskill Mountains. This tract lies 

 at the headwaters of the well-known Esopus 

 River, the main feeder of New York City's mam- 

 moth Ashokan reservoir, and hence is of great 

 value as a protection to this and other streams 

 arising in the vicinity. The tract is divided into 

 steep upper slopes and more gentle lower slopes, 

 about half of the 3,500 acres being in each of the 

 two slope types. 



This is the second season's work done in the 

 locality, the first season's consisting of a detailed 

 forest survey of the tract. The present year's 

 work secured additional facts necessary for the 

 preparation of a detailed plan of forest manage- 

 ment. 



Milwaukee, August 3, 191 5. — Henceforth the 

 aeroplane will be an important factor in hunting 

 for forest fires in northern Wisconsin. Jack Vilas, 

 an aviator, has been appointed a forest ranger and 

 is now vising his hydro-aeroplane, now at Trout 

 Lake, in detecting fires and reporting their 

 extent. 



E. M. Grififith, head of the Wisconsin forestry 

 department, recently visited Trout Lake and made 

 an ascent with Vilas. They went up 1,200 feet 

 and the ease with which a little fire several miles 

 away was located so impressed the chief forester 

 that he determined to make Vilas a fire scout. 



Heretofore the view a ranger has had of the 

 surrounding country has been limited to that 

 given from a 60-foot tower at the various forestry 

 stations. Vilas recently discovered a fire thirty 

 miles off and on investigation found he had made 

 an accurate estimate of its distance and extent. 



The hydro-aeroplane will reach the place of a 

 fire in a few minutes, where with ordinary facili- 

 ties of the forest ranger, hours would be consum- 

 ed. Hard trips on foot over trails to learn the 

 extent of fires far from roads will be avoided by 

 the use of the hydro-aeroplane. 



B. C's DISCOVERY. 



Victoria, B.C. — An interesting instance of the 

 extent to which the timber resources of the 

 Province have been under-estimated is given in 

 reports recently submitted to the Honourable W. 

 R. Ross. Cruisers lately returned from an exam- 

 ination of the valleys of the Elk, Salmon, White 

 and Gold Rivers on Vancouver Island came across 

 one hundred thousand acres of unalienated crown 

 timber, with an average stand of fifteen thousand 

 feet to the acre, representing a total of one and 

 a half billion feet. This timber is readily acces- 

 sible, in f^ct the grades which exist in these 

 valleys render it possible to bring logs across the 

 island from Nootka to Salmon River, crossing the 

 surveys of the Canadian Pacific and Canadian 

 Northern railways. 



GRAND TRUNK'S GOOD MOVE. 



Mr. Morley Donaldson, Vice-President of the 

 Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, announced that the 

 installation of oil burning locomotives on the 

 mountain section of the line has now been com- 

 pleted. These locomotives are of the most mod- 

 ern type and were placed in service for passenger 

 traffic for the first time July 30th. They are 

 operating from Jasper to Prince Rupert, over TIO' 

 miles of main line. 



Especial interest attaches to the installation of 

 this class of motive power, as it marks the first 

 use of oil burners on an extensive scale in Can- 

 ada. Great oil storage tanks have been erected at 

 various points along the line, for supplying loco- 

 motives with the necessary fuel. With the opera- 

 tion of these locomotives there is a complete 

 absence of the discomforts which sometimes arise 

 from the vise of coal with it-s tendency to give off 

 dust and grit. 



The section of the' line on which these locomo- 

 tives are being vised passes through the finest 

 scenic territory in the Canadian Rockies and the 

 absence of coal dust, it is believed will add to the 

 pleasure of the journey. 



The Grand Trunk Pacific Steamships "Prince 

 George" and "Prince Rupert," which operate 

 from the Pacific terminal of the line at Prince 

 Rupert to Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle, are 

 also oil burners, and this gives the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific nearly 1,500 miles of rail and water route 

 on which this form of fuel only is used. 



