260 



Canadian Forestry Journal, November, ipij. 



by the g-overnment to prevent fight 

 and control fires." 



Ontario Suffers. 

 In Ontario, Quebec and New 

 Brunswick and British Columbia 85 

 per cent, of the losses were due to 

 settlers' fires. Quebec and British 

 Columbia have secured splendid re- 

 sults from their "permit" laws, by 

 which all settlers are obliged to ob- 

 tain the supervision of a forest rang- 

 er before setting out their clearing 

 fires. 



Ontario has no such law, and has 

 suffered serious consequences, but it 

 is recognized that the Minister of 

 Lands, Forests and Mines has the 

 problem under consideration, and 

 may evolve an adequate remedy in 

 the near future. New Brunswick 

 has already made a good start in the 

 regulation of settlers' fires, and will 

 presumably spread the plan across 

 the entire province. 



Perhaps the outstanding fact of 

 the season's forest destruction is the 

 absence of any serious loss along the 

 lines of railwav governed bv the 

 Dommion Board of Railway Com- 

 missioners and their forest protec- 

 tion regulations. Before the imposi- 

 tion of these laws, the Canadian 

 railways were pointed out as the 

 chief offenders in burning of forests. 

 Now, however, the non-govern- 

 ment lines under the Board's con- 

 trol are annually presenting a record 

 of fire immunity which places them 

 permanently among the minor 

 causes of damage to the country's 

 timber. As a matter of fact, only 

 two or three fires of over ten acres 

 in extent were attributed this year 

 to those lines where the system of 

 the Railway Commission has been 

 put completely into effect. On two 

 railways, of relatively small mileage, 

 to which the board's regulations do 

 not apply, no less than 200 fires were 

 reported. Many of them were seri- 

 ous in extent, and at least 600,000 

 acres were burned over by fires due 

 either to locomotives or men travel- 

 ling along the right of way of these 

 two roads. 



Manitoba's Loss. 



Manitoba lost more than $1,000,- 

 000 in damage to mature timber and 

 young growth in 1915. The total 

 area burned over was 800,000 acres, 

 according to official reports thus far 

 received. Final reports will prob- 

 ably show an increased loss. 



The fires in Manitoba took place 

 mainly in the latter part of May and 

 the early part of June, and were par- 

 ticularly destructive in the vicinity 

 of the Hudson Bay Railway. 



In the Province of Saskatchewan 

 the most destructive fires took place 

 during the same period as in Mani- 

 toba, but the fires were confined 

 more to the areas under effective 

 patrol, and the total destruction is 

 not so great. The present figures in- 

 dicate a total burned area of about 

 160,000 acres, and a total damage of 

 $170,000. 



In the southern portion of Alberta 

 there has been an exceptional 

 amount of rain throughout the sea- 

 son, so that the fires reported from 

 the region south of the Peace river 

 country and Athabaska Landing 

 are comparatively small in number, 

 and covered only about 25,000 acres, 

 on which the damage is estimated 

 to be about $1.00 per acre. 



B. C. Raihvay Belt. 



In the valleys of the Peace river, 

 the Lower Athabasca river and the 

 Mackenzie river conditions have, on- 

 the other hand, been phenomenally 

 dry, resulting in fires that have been 

 more destructive than in many years 

 previous. Probably not less than 

 half a million acres were burned 

 over. As a good deal of the coun- 

 try burned over is probably incap- 

 able of producing merchantable 

 timber, the loss would not be over 

 $200,000. 



In British Columbia, the area pa- 

 trolled by the Dominion rangers is^ 

 confined to the railway belt. In the 

 eastern portion of the belt rains oc- 

 curred at fairly regular intervals, 

 and while there was at several 

 times considerable danger from fire, 

 the ranger staff was able to cope 



