Canadian Forestry Journal, February. ipi6. 



381 



Private Timber Owners and Fire 



Protection 



Better Allow Saw Mill or Paper Mill to Burn Than Neglect 



Insurance of Raw Materials. 



By 



Ellwood Wilson, 

 Forester, Laureniide Coinpany, Limited. 



Imagine the manufacturer with 

 his whole stock of raw material for 

 his lifetime piled up in one store- 

 house. A\'ould he have it insured? 

 Would automatic sprinklers be in- 

 stalled? Would he have a watchman 

 or so on the premises? Would you 

 if you were that manufacturer? Let 

 me carry the parallel a little further, 

 and ask what you would do if you 

 knew that the destruction of your 

 stock of raw material meant the 

 destruction of the elements from 

 which it could be reproduced and 

 the supply for your children and 

 grand children. 



The forest is such a store-house 

 and on it depends our most impor- 

 tant industries, the stability and 

 continuity of our water powers, the 

 welfare of our agricultural popula- 

 tion, the comfort of our daily lives. 

 The private timberland owner is just 

 as vitally interested in fire protec- 

 tion for his woodlands as any manu- 

 facturer. He might far better let his 

 saw-mill, his sulphite plant, his 

 paper-mill go uninsured and spend 

 the money in protecting his forests. 

 In a year or two he can rebuild his 

 mill, he can easily borrow the 

 money for the purpose and go on 

 just as before. But he cannot re- 

 produce his forests. After a bad fire 

 the soil itself is partially or wholly 



destroyed and if the fire has been of 

 any extent the distance from the 

 nearest source of seed may be too 

 far away for natural reforestation to 

 take place. Gentlemen. I have seen 

 a tract of land of about ten square 

 miles in extent which after fifty-six 

 years has not a stick of merchant- 

 able timber on it although covered 

 with a growth of small birch and 

 aspen, which is already past its 

 prime, and not only is there no mer- 

 chantable timber but on this whole 

 tract there are but 1,280 spruce and 

 balsam trees not over three inches 

 in diameter. The average percent- 

 age of burnt over land which is not 

 reproducing in Quebec is 16% or 

 about 10,597 square miles and that 

 on wdiich reproduction has begun is 

 12.9%. These figures are based on 

 actual surveys over a large area and 

 when applied to the areas under li- 

 cense rather under than over-state 

 the amounts. 



Piling and Burning. 



One of the most important ques- 

 tions to be considered by lumber- 

 men for the protection of their for- 

 ests is an efficient and economical 

 method of slash disposal. Top-lop- 



pmg 



on operations where large 



amounts of timber are cut has prov 

 ed in my experiments to be too ex 



