Canadian Forestry Journal, January, ipi6. 



347 



was negligable; 1914, however, 

 proved one of the worst experienced 

 in years. It was likened by many 

 to the famous bad year of 1910. The 

 force being- new and in many cases 

 inexperienced, though doing all that 

 could be expected, was not sufficient 

 to cope with the situation. No sim- 

 ilar years had confronted the new 

 organization and consequently pro- 

 vision had not been made to look 

 after such a bad situation. 



In 1914 there were 198 fires, burn- 

 ing a total area of 88,400 acres, and 

 damaging property valued at $28,- 

 000.00. 



The past season, 1915, proved to 

 be very favorable and the damage 

 was slight. The number of fires was 

 72 with only 14 of them costing 

 money to fight, against 97 in 1914, 

 or 19 per cent, against 49 per cent. 



These results would show an im- 

 provement over 1914. In both years 

 there has not been a serious fire on 

 or threatening any of the important 

 watersheds. The experience of the 

 two preceding years enabled us to 

 place an organization, and so distri- 

 bute it that the percentage of fires 

 costing extra money to fight was 

 reduced by 30 per cent. The per- 

 centage of fires of unknown origin 

 was also reduced showing a better 

 distribution of the force for detec- 

 tion. The lessons learned in 1914 

 were put to good purpose in 1915. 

 Those of 1915 will be put to good 

 purpose in 1916. 



Ideal conditions will never be 

 reached, as ideals never should, but 

 each year will see a better and more 

 efficient organization, and conse- 

 quently decreased danger to the 

 valuable watersheds and timber sup- 

 plies of the Okanagan. 



Double Reason for Care. 

 Lack of space has prevented the 

 presentation of a great many facts 

 and figures concerning the forests 

 and the problems confronting the 

 Forest Branch in the Okanagan 

 Valley but enough has been said to 

 show that the main problem is and 



always will be one of protection. 

 Protection, not so much for the in- 

 trinsic value of the timber involved 

 but protection for the maintenance 

 of a steady and reliable supply of 

 water for irrigation, and through 

 that, protection to the great agri- 

 cultural interests that make for the 

 prosperity and advancement of the 

 entire district. 



Douglas Fir Wins in Test 



Victoria, B.C. : Two Douglas Fir 

 and two Red Cedar railway ties 

 were recently forwarded by the For- 

 est Branch of the Department of 

 Lands, to the Great Eastern Rail- 

 way Company of England, who 

 selected two sleepers from their 

 stock which they obtained from the 

 Baltic, and tested them all under 

 similar conditions. 



The results of these tests show 

 beyond a doubt the superiority of 

 British Columbia Douglas Fir for 

 railroad ties. 



It was found that under compres- 

 sion Douglas Fir will stand 5,695 

 pounds per square inch ; while Red 

 Cedar made a very creditable show- 

 ing against the Baltic timber of 

 3,407 pounds per square inch. 



Tests in tension were even more 

 favorable for Douglas Fir. This is 

 shown by the fact that it would 

 take 11,450 pounds or over 5>2 tons 

 to pull apart a stick of Douglas Fir 

 having a cross section of one square 

 inch; whereas just half that weight 

 would suffice to pull apart Baltic 

 timber, and only 3,300 pounds were 

 required to separate Cedar. 



These tests were carried out by 

 the Great Eastern Railway, and the 

 results which they found will be of 

 immense value to the reputation of 

 Douglas Fir as a railway tie material 

 amongst English engineers. The 

 importance, of this is increased by 

 the fact that English engineers have 

 the supervision of most of the rail- 

 way lines in China, India and South 

 Africa, all of which are valuable 

 markets for Douglas Fir. 



