384 



Canadian Forestry Journal, February, ipi6. 



Education Needed. 

 The great necessity is education 

 of all classes of our people — the man 

 in the street, the government offi- 

 cials, members of parliament, lum- 

 bermen, business men. woodsmen, 

 farmers, settlers, and hunters, and 

 above all the children, for they will 

 be the men of the coming genera- 

 tion ; and often the only way is to 

 educate the children. The church in 

 the Prvoince has done splendid 

 work. His Eminence. Cardinal Be- 

 gin, Archbishop Bruchesi. and Mon- 

 signor Laflamme have for years sent 

 special notices to all their parishes 

 to impress upon their people the ne- 

 cessity for care. The Department of 

 Education, through their inspectors, 

 have distributed leaflets to the 

 schools in both languages, showing 

 by pictures and by simple sentences 

 the danger of forest fires. The re- 

 duction in the number of settlers' 

 fires has been remarkable and once 

 the laws are enforced they will be a 

 thing of the past. Members of par- 

 liament are especially in need of in- 

 struction, for several times they have 

 encouraged their constituents to 

 fight arrest and have influenced the 

 magistrates, tried to use their influ- 

 ence at Oue1)ec, and have even paid 

 the fines themselves. The magis- 

 trates have been very remiss in their 

 duty in some districts, discharging 

 offenders in spite of clear evidence 

 and imposing fines of $1.00, making 

 thus a mockery of the law they are 

 sworn to administer. 



Menace of X. T. Railu^ay. 

 The railways, with one notable ex- 

 ception, have had a decided change 

 of heart and railway fires of any 

 seriousness are rapidly becoming a 

 thing of the past. The N.T.R. and 

 I.C.R. are an exception to this and 

 are to-day a menace to the forests of 

 the Province. Although the Hon- 

 ourable Minister of Railways and 

 Canals promised to put into effect 

 the same regulations as those in 

 force on the railroads under the rail- 

 wav Commission and issued an 



order to that effect, his heads of de- 

 partments have not enforced his 

 orders in Quebec and have as yet 

 made no provision for adequate pro- 

 tection. Since these lines run 

 through country which will give 

 them no other freight but timber, 

 they should, even from a selfish 

 standpoint, protect these sections. 

 The Quebec Government has done 

 all in its power to get this matter 

 settled, but has had no satisfaction. 

 Workers in the woods are still in 

 need of education, as ten per cent, of 

 the fires are still set by drivers. 

 Woodlands Departments are getting 

 more strict, and setting a fire is now 

 in the most progressive companies 

 cause for instant discharge of the 

 ifian and punishment for the fore- 

 man. 



Stricter Lazi's Coming. 



The proposed amendments to the 

 present law approved by Mr. Allard, 

 and the better enforcement of the 

 fire laws, will be a great step in ad- 

 vance. These changes will require 

 ])ermits to burn clearings at any 

 time during the summer, will require 

 all persons called on by a fire-ranger 

 for help in extinguishing fires to 

 respond under penalty of a fine, will 

 fix minimum fines for infractions of 

 the laws so that a magistrate cannot 

 make the law ridiculous bv letting a 

 man off with a one dollar fine, and 

 will punish by imprisonment any 

 deliberate setting of fire to get em- 

 ployment in extinguishing it. 



There is a great need for better 

 methods of slash disposal and I be- 

 lieve that the only right method is 

 the i)iling and burning of the bran- 

 ches and tops as soon as the trees 

 are felled. A fire in a slashing is 

 terribly destructive and almost im- 

 possible to fight, and if there was no 

 inflammable material of this kind, 

 fires, except in unusually dry sea- 

 sons, could never assume dangerous 

 proportions and could be easily ex- 

 tinguished. 



The greatest advance in fire pre- 

 vention methods will probably come 



