198 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1915. 



CODDLING VS. CONTROLLING 



The campaign carried on by the Can- 

 adian Forestry Association for statu- 

 tory control over settlers' fires in every 

 province of the Dominion, has found 

 endorsement from a great many news- 

 paper editors. 



The Quebec Telegraph thus refers to 

 the failure of Ontario to tackle the 

 question from any angle, and the Que- 

 bec tendency to fight shy of drastic 

 penalties upon guilty settlers: 



"With little or nothing themselves to 

 lose, these pioneers of the woods cause 

 too often immense loss and damage to 

 others and yet it is considered almost 

 a crime in the province to speak dis- 

 paragingly of them or their practic^^s 

 or to do anything but pap-feed and 

 encourage them in every possible way 

 when the proper thing would be to 

 punish them severely for failing to 

 take the necessary precautions to do 

 no injury to their neighbors. The 

 evil results of coddling these people 

 are too frequently to be seen in the 

 destruction of many of our most val- 

 uable timber limits and vast quantities 

 of our forest products." 



"Le Pauvre Colon." 



"It is sad to think that so much de- 

 struction must recur almost every 

 year and that we are still to a great 

 extent powerless to stop it. L^n- 

 doubtedly, the Government's fire sup- 

 pression and forest service has given 

 excellent results in that direction, but 

 it cannot cope altogether successfully 

 with an evil so insidious and so wide- 

 spread, nor can it hope ever to do so 

 effectually until it boldly throttles and 

 crushes the chief cause of that evil. 



Reference is had to the practice of al- 

 lowing backwoods settlers to set fire 

 to their choppings in the prosecution 

 of their land-cleaning operations. It is 

 your pauvre colon who in nine cases 

 out of ten is responsible for our bush 

 fires and the great destruction which 



they too often occasion,, and not the 

 anglers or hunters, who frequent the 

 woods at this season and who, together 

 with their guides, are, as a rule, ex- 

 ceedingly careful about the fires which 

 they set during their outings in the 

 bush. For the one forest fire accident- 

 ly caused by these dozens and dozens 

 of them arise from the practice of set- 

 ting fire for land-cleaning purposes 

 owing to the improper times chosen 

 by settlers to carry on their 'burns,' 

 their utter disregard of all safety con- 

 ditions and their carelessness or neg- 

 lect in watching the fires which they 

 start. 



A Word for Ontario. 



To which the Cochrane (Ont.) 

 "Claybelt" adds : 



\\diat is said here of the province of 

 Quebec is equally true of the province 

 of Ontario. Fortunately the weather 

 has been favorable this year and heavy 

 rains checked the incipient conflag- 

 rations before too much damage was 

 done, but the utter disregard of some 

 of the settlers how far a fire might 

 run and what forest wealth it might 

 consume beyond their own limits, so 

 long as it cleans their lots for the culti- 

 vation of a few acres, is such a serious 

 menance that more drastic steps will 

 have to be taken to teach the settler 

 that he cannot burn down his own 

 neighbors' lots unremittingly. Now 

 is the time to put the fire protection 

 business on a dififerent and more effec- 

 tive basis so that we start the next 

 season right." 



Rangers AI. V. Allen and F. B. Ed- 

 wards, of the Canadian Mounted 

 Rifles, are at Shornclifife. 



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