[ganong] origins of SETTLEMENTS IN NEAV BRUNSWICK IS 



'Frequently ridges of such soàls occur in regions otherwise of poor 

 quality, and such ridges are particularly well marked in parts of Char- 

 lotte County; while smaller ridges and terraces arc al)uii(lnnt throughout 

 'the Province, determining by their level, well-drained, elevated cliar- 

 acter the sites of many villages and innumerable houses. But all of 

 "the soils of the Province are not good, and there are extensive areas 

 Vhere the soils are so poor as to be agriculturally useless. Such is the 

 case with a great part of the Central Highlands and the western part 

 of the Southern Highlands. In both of these regions the underlying 

 rocks are of such a hardness, in extreme cases granite, that they do not 

 decay readily to form soil nor is the quality good when they do. Further- 

 more, the action oi the ice of the glacial period carried these barren 

 TO'cks in considerable quantities as boulders to the south-east, often 

 ■covering and rendering useless much better soils. In this way are dater- 

 mined those great areas in the central, south-east, and south of 

 the Province, which, as shown on our population map (^lap Xo. 13), 

 are entirely without population. These areas are not, however, use- 

 less, for they possess two values; they bear valuable forest, and with 

 'it a great quantity of large game. 



An important phase of soil conditions with a bearing on settle- 

 •megt is the wearing out of thin soils, either from rapid natural ex- 

 ■haustion or through defective agriculture. This has caused the aban- 

 'donjmen;t of many settlements in the southern part of the Province. 

 'But it is also true that many serious mistakes nave been made in the 

 location of immigrant settlements on poor soils, despite the fact that 

 an aljundance of good land has always been available. 



The settlements determined prinuirily by soils are of course of the 

 scattered sort, with little tendency to condensation except at the occa- 

 sional trading centres which develop naturally in all farming regions. 

 'This is brought out clearly by the remarkably even distribution of 

 ■population, shown in our population map (Map No. 13). in th" typi<'al 

 farming sections of Carleton County and King-'s County. 



/"'. Forests. The conditions of temjjcrature and precipitation, and 

 as well of slope and elevation, are such in Xew Brunswick that prac- 

 tically every part of the land surface of the Province, excepting only 

 •some bogs, barrens and abrupt rocky hill-tops, is covered with a denîe 

 forest containing most of the valuable timber trees of the cool 

 •temperate zone, especially the white pine, the red spruce, the white 

 cedar, the sugar maple, the paper birch with others of somewhat lesser 

 value, the hemlock, beech, butternut, a few oaks and some others. The 

 presence of this fine forest, practically alike through all parts of Llie 

 Province, in conjunction with the nuiny great rivers, has determined 



