Canadian Forestry Journal, November, igi6 



831 



A Valuable Report. 



The focussing of public attention in 

 Canada upon the problem of strength- 

 ening our national organization 

 through increased industrial and com- 

 mercial efficiency lends special value 

 and interest to the Seventh Annual Re- 

 port of the Commission of Conserva- 

 tion which has recently been issued- 



1 he resume of the past year's work 

 is notable primarily for the progress 

 recorded in the constructive pro- 

 gramme entered upon by the newly 

 formed Town Planning branch, with 

 respect to one of our greatest and most 

 urgent national problems, viz., the pro- 

 per use and development of land, par- 

 ticularly in urban areas. 



A second noteworthy feature is the 

 attention devoted by the Commission 

 to the reduction of the heavy economic 

 handicap imposed upon Canada 

 through her enormous annual fire 

 losses. 



The section of the report containing 

 the results of an agricultural survey in 

 four representative counties presents 

 accurate and definite data regarding 

 the deficiencies of Canada's chief indus- 

 try and affords a valuable indication of 

 the lines along which efforts to im- 

 prove rural conditions, economic and 

 social, should be directed. 



Steady progress has been made by 

 the Commission in the huge task of na- 

 tional stock-taking, the urgent neces- 

 sity for which becomes daily more ap- 

 parent. Recent experience has served 

 to emphasize the need for accurate 

 knowledge of the nature and extent of 

 the Dominion's wealth in lands, forests, 

 minerals, water powers, fisheries and 

 wild life, as a guidance to intelligent 

 and permanent national expansion. 



Insuring Timber Limits. 

 Standing timber is one fire risk that 

 hitherto has not been regarded with fa- 

 vor by the fire insurance companies.. 

 Some insurance of this sort has been 

 written in Canada by the ' London 

 Lloyds on separate limited tracts and 

 an excess loss only, the insured bear- 

 ing all losses below this limit. The 

 Phoenix Insurance Co.. of London, is, 

 however, this year writing some insur- 

 ance upon green standing timber in 

 Oregon and Washington, with certain 

 restrictions, and at rates varving from 



1 and 13% per cent. The timber must 

 be accessible to markets, not unduly 

 exposed to fire hazard, and only one 

 risk is taken in each fire zone or area 

 indicated by the Company. No risk 

 is written greater than $17,500 in any 

 one such area. 



W. R. Brown in an article on this 

 subject in "American Forestry" goes 

 in to some detail in discussing the pos- 

 sibilities of this subject. He summar- 

 izes the fire experiences within the 

 territor}^ of various fire prevention as- 

 sociations, and his figures include the 

 22,000,000 acres under the supervision 

 of E. C. Allen in the twelve western 

 private fire prevention associations 

 which he supervises ; the New Hamp- 

 shire Timberland Owners' Association 

 with 1,000,000 acres; the Northern 

 Fire Protective Association of Michi- 

 gan with 2,000,000 acres ; the St. Mau- 

 rice Valley Fire Protective Association 

 of Quebec with an area of 8,000,000 

 acres — the total of the four associations 

 being 33,000.000 acres. The expendi- 

 ture for forest ranging and fire preven- 

 tion is approximately 1 cent an acre 

 for the first three and Y\. cent an acre 

 for the Canadian organization. In the 

 western associations the fire loss for 

 the year 1910 was one-half of 1 per 

 cent- In each association since that 

 time it has been much less than that 

 figure, except for 1914 in the Canadian 

 association, when one fire got away 

 and the fire loss of the year was three- 

 fourths of 1 per cent upon the timber 

 valuation. Taking all four areas to- 

 gether and summarizing the figures for 

 each which Mr. Allen gives, the aver- 

 age yearly losses respectively were as 

 follows : 



1910, .005; 1911, .000171; 1912, 

 .0002328; 1913, .0012636; 1914, .00253; 

 1915, .00427. 



The writer concludes from these fig- 

 ures that in such protective areas fire 

 insurance should cost for the loss ratio 

 not over one-half per cent, annually, 

 with another one-half per cent, added 

 for administration cost of the insurance 

 plan. He gives some further experi- 

 ence upon which to base this conclu- 

 sion. In Minnesota during the last 

 ten years, with its forest wealth of 

 $280,000,000. the average fire loss has 

 been about $100,000, or one-thirty- 

 fourth of 1 per cent, annually. 



