CURRENT LITERATURE. 



The Trent Watershed Survey. By C. D. Howe and J. H. White, 

 with introductory discussion by B. E. Fernow. Commission of 

 Conservation. Ottawa 191 3. P. 156. 



This report issued by the Canadian Commission on Conserva- 

 tion after a careful field study of a mismanaged forest area in 

 Ontario is quite the most valuable publication on forestry which 

 has yet appeared in Canada. 



It throws the spotlight on the results inevitably following the 

 mismanagement of forests in Eastern Canada. 



The area described is typical of the greatest forest region of 

 Canada, the Archaean formation characteristic of the permanent 

 timberlands throughout Canada east of Lake Winnipeg, and even 

 west of Lake Winnipeg, north of the prairies. What is true of 

 the 2100 square miles of the Trent valley in Old Ontario is true 

 of hundreds of thousands of square miles in New Ontario, Que- 

 bec. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia where the forest, the only 

 possible crop, has been left to manage itself. 



The Trent Valley was originally heavily forested, two-thirds 

 pine, chiefly. white, and one-third hardwoods, beech and maple. 

 Lumbering under the licence system began in 1840, reached the 

 maximum cut of 160 million feet per year in 1872 and dwindled 

 to 18,000,000 feet pine, 24,000,000 feet hardwoods in 191 1. The 

 pine will be cut out in five years. 



The forest was milked. The total cut of timber and total 

 revenue received is not shown ; whatever the revenue may have 

 been none of it was used to perpetuate the forest. No expendi- 

 ture was made, no care was taken to protect logged over lands 

 from fire or to encourage another crop of timber, even though 

 the Government was informed that the land was non-agricultural. 

 The results of this policy as already apparent, are shown in the 

 report, both generally for the region and in detail for each town- 

 ship. A similar policy of destructive lumbering and neglect of 

 logged over lands' by governments is still in force in many ex- 



