NATURAL HISTORY AND PHYSIOGRAPHY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 229 



the amount and regularity of annual rainfall (both of which, as many 

 students think, are increased by the presence of forests, to the great 

 advantage of the farmer) it is everywhere known that the removal of 

 forests leads to great fluctuations in the water level of rivers, periods 

 of extreme low water alternating with destructive floods. This not 

 only interferes with navigation upon the smaller rivers, but greatly 

 lessens the value of their waterpowers, a subject certain to become of 

 great practical importance in the near future, since, as the leading 

 authorities agree, the improvements in the conduction of power by 

 electricity are sure to make natural sources of power again of value. 

 Destruction of forests, too, destroys their game-producing power, and 

 the fish-producing power of their streams, and hence removes their 

 attraction to wealthy sportsmen whom New Brunswick is doing her 

 best to attract. Yet other losses, sentimental as well as economical, 

 which a people may suffer with loss of their forests, will occur to all. 

 Deforesting may, of course, occur in other ways, and lead to the 

 same losses, though these are far less in degree than fires entail. 

 Land cleared for cultivation, though partially kept intact by the 

 farmer's crops, suffers slow deterioration, but this loss is unavoidable 

 and slight in proportion to the gain. Especially reckless lumbering 

 sometimes lays an area well nigh waste, allowing of similar deteriora- 

 tion, particularly since such places are very liable to fires. At the 

 present day the forests are threatened by a new danger — the rapacity 

 of pulp-mills, which take lumber even as small as five inches diameter, 

 and hence practically clear the land where they operate, leaving little 

 to grow into timber for the future. No pulp-mill should be allowed 

 to operate in New Brunswick in a way to deforest any piece of land, 

 for a speedy profit of this kind will be dearly paid for in the future. 

 The only wise method -in forestry management is to keep a forest 

 intact, and this can be done only by a system of rotation in cutting, 

 by which the larger trees alone are removed, the smaller being left to 

 grow. The prevention of forest fires, and a wise system of cutting, 

 would make the annual lumber crop as certain and as continuous as 

 the agricultural crop. This would give permanence to settlements in 

 the lumber districts and increase the prosperity and contentment of 

 our people. What would it not mean to Charlotte county to-day if 

 her lumber had not been recklessly cut away and her best lands badly 

 burnt over 1 



