12 FOREST COMMISSrONEK's REPORT. 



We have ;i large amount of land in this State entirely unfit 

 for cultivation that can be made very useful by growing tim- 

 ber on it. The groat enemy that our forests have to contend 

 with is "Fire." It is regarded by all that have interested 

 themselves in the question of forestry that the protection of 

 our forests from fire is the first, great and important duty of 

 the State towards our wild lands. If fires are kept out of 

 the forest the work of restoration goes on whenever and 

 wherever the larger growth is cut out for any of the purposes 

 that wood or timber is used. Nature is always ready to aid 

 the work, and in a few years the forest that has been stripped 

 of the larger growth presents a thrifty appearance. Our 

 forests dc not present a uniform growth. Trees of all sizes 

 are o-rowins: in the same vicinity, and when the lari^est ones 

 are removed the smaller make a much more rapid growth. 



It is not always good economy to allow the old growth to 

 remain ; after the tree has matured it may be for the interest 

 of the owner to have it removed, thereby giving the smaller a 

 chance to grow. To make our forests profitable they should 

 be kept in a growing condition. The great crop growing on 

 our unimproved lands is of great value, equal to, if not 

 exceeding, any other crop growing upon our soil. But if 

 fires are allowed to follow the axe the crop is ruined, and in 

 case of a hard fire the soil is nearly ruined to. We often hear 

 the remark made about forest fires, that they are running in 

 '<old burnt land" and are "not doing any damage," the land 

 has been burnt over once and condemned as being always 

 worthless. The writer calls to mind a tract of land of about 

 five hundred acres that was burned over in the "great fire" 

 of 1824 or 1825. The first growth, judging from what was 

 standing near, was hard wood mixed with a small per cent of 

 spruce. The second growth was nearly all poplar and white 

 birch. No care was taken of this tract, and every few years 

 fire ran over it for the next thirty years, when it was looked 

 after and fires kept out. A few years ago the poplar was 

 sold for pulp, and the owners realized about three dollars per 



