878 



Canadian Forestry Journal, December, ipi6 



families content themselves with mud 

 shelters, primitive working methods 

 and wages of a few cents a day. Wher- 

 ever we go over the earth we learn that 

 the balance of Nature cannot be dis- 

 turbed without disastrous conse- 

 quences. Where the forest is swept 

 away, the farm follows. 



Our Governments as Stewards. 



What is the duty of the Canadian 

 public toward their forest possessions? 

 First, to guard them against fire. One 

 would think that Governments, as pub- 

 lic trustees, would have thrown an in- 

 surance policy about such indispen- 

 sable possesions, but the truth is that 

 we are only in the primer class in fire 

 guarding. We have enough good ex- 

 amples, as in parts of Quebec and all 

 of British Columbia and Nova Scotia, 

 to show that bush fires can be put out 

 of business and forested country ren- 

 dered safe for human life and property. 

 There is very little reliable informa- 



tion on forest fires of past or present, 

 and this had hidden from the public the 

 incredible losses they have sustained. 

 We have shielded ourselves with the 

 notions that forest fires were visitations 

 of Providence and that plenty of timber 

 remained. If any reader of this arti- 

 cle takes comfort in the possibilities of 

 re-planting the forests in the wake of 

 irretrievable fire damage, it is well for 

 him to remember that planting forests 

 with tiny seedlings costs at least $12 an 

 acre, while protecting the full grown 

 forests of giant pine or Douglas fir 

 against burning, costs only half a cent 

 an acre. The forest fire is the biggest 

 thief in Canada to-day. It seeds upon 

 the indecision of Governments just as 

 Governments avoid preventive action 

 by the indecision of the easy-going 

 voter. Anv Government that wills it 

 so can put a stop to forest fires, for we 

 are lagging behind every decently gov- 

 erned country in the world in the sane 

 employment of our forest resources. 



Forest Influence on Stream Pollution 



^ 



By N. R. Buller, of Pennsylvania 

 Department of Fisheries. 



The relation of the forests to the 

 streams and stream pollution is natu- 

 rally very close. Without forests we 

 could not have beautiful streams and 

 without beautiful streams the forests 

 would be lacking. 



Before the white man took up his re- 

 sidence, all th ewater in the lakes and 

 streams was pure and undefiled, fitted 

 for man to drink, for the cattle to 

 quench their thirst, and for the fish to 

 live and prosper. There is no greater 

 chemist than Dame Nature herself, and 

 she works with a will and earnestness 

 that should excite the emulation of 

 man. 



When a tree fell in the forests the 

 oxygen in the air produced to make it 

 useful, and the carbonic acid resulting 

 from the work of the oxygen was taken 

 up by the growing tree alongside of the 



fallen one, and the carbon converted 

 into plant life, while the oxygen was 

 once more given ofif free to the air to 

 again resume its chemical work. Simi- 

 lar processes were transformed so that 

 from day to day there was an everlast- 

 ing work of the chemical forces to de- 

 stroy those things which have lived 

 their lives and to build up those which 

 were beginning their lives- 

 Nothing in nature is without its use. 

 If the trees and brush along the streams 

 and lakes, in course of time, fall into 

 the waters they become shelters in 

 which the small fish could hide, the mir 

 croscopic animalculas on which the lit- 

 tle fish lived could propagate and thus 

 subserve a useful end. There was no 

 trash in those days when nature ruled 

 supreme and man did not intervene his 

 wasteful hand. 



