Canadian Forestry Journal, September, ipi6 



717 



Matches Arc Popular. 



It is natural to find, therefore, 

 that the timber imports of India, 

 aside from teak, which is brought in 

 from lava and Siam to the extent of 

 $800,000 to $1,250,000 yearly, consist 

 almost entirely of rough lumbers for 

 temporary uses only, or manufac- 

 tured wooden articles introduced by 

 Europeans or rendered necessary by 

 the development of industries. 



India is probably the only country 

 in the world in which the imports of 

 such articles as matches, boxes and 

 railroad sleepers exceed greatly in 

 value the importations of rough 

 lumber. Matches are the only 

 wooden articles the population can 

 afford to buy. The other articles, 

 together with the common lumber, 

 do not pass into the hands of the 

 Indian population, but are used ex- 

 clusively in industries, public works 

 or by transportation companies. 



Chittenden's Folly. 



"In a long editorial the Toronto 

 World gives publicity to a state- 

 ment by General Chittenden of the 

 United States army that forests are 

 not of use as storage reservoirs for 

 rainfall. Because General Chitten- 

 den denies that the forests retain the 

 snow, causing it to melt gradually, 

 denies that the forests absorb more 

 rainfall than the cultivated fields. 

 and takes no stock in the argument 

 that springs and wells dry up when 

 forests are cut down, and calls that 

 part of the forestry propaganda, 

 which goes further than asking for 

 the protection of forests for wood 

 crop a good deal of humbug, the 

 World innocently considers that a 

 myth has been exploded, and that 

 possibly forest fires are rather an 

 advantage. It is fortunate that the 

 conclusions of General Chittenden 

 are so very obviously wrong, that 

 little harm will be done by the pub- 

 licity that has been given them, or 

 by their acceptance by folks who 

 have never had the opportunity to 



judge these natural forces for them- 

 selves. Our Canadian forestry 

 service is run by very capable men. 

 Men who are living in daily con- 

 tact with these things and who have 

 splendid opportunity to make a sci- 

 entific study of them. The same is 

 true of the United States forestry 

 service, and both services are doing 

 their best to convince the nations of 

 the advisability of keeping the land 

 which cannot be advantageously 

 used by agriculturists covered with 

 forests, so as to preserve our 

 streams and our rivers, and to pre- 

 vent our country becoming, like 

 northern Mexico and the plains of 

 South Africa, hills denuded of soil 

 and a countrv seamed with drv gul- 



lies, aroyas 

 Witness. 



or kloofs." — -Montreal 



Saving Lives and Dollars. 

 (Kamloops, B.C., Standard.) 



The great benefit which the Pro- 

 vince of British Columbia is deriv- 

 ing from the systematic work done 

 by the Provincial Forestry Depart- 

 ment on Provincial lands, and by 

 Dominion foresters in the lands con- 

 trolled by the Federal Government, 

 can hardly be estimated by one not 

 familiar with the appalling havoc 

 which fire can produce in a forested 

 country. 



The recent conflagration in 

 Northern Ontario points to the fact 

 that the British Columbia system 

 of forest protection is well worth 

 every dollar expended upon it. 

 There have been some serious out- 

 outbreaks in this country, but in 

 each and every locality the fire has 

 been put under control before it 

 gained headway. Millions of dol- 

 lars have been saved to the province 

 and to the lumber industries by the 

 British Columbia staff of fire war- 

 dens and rangers, and millions of 

 dollars and many precious lives 

 would have been saved to Ontario if 

 that province had any such system 

 of fire protection as we have in this 

 province. 



