1908-9. | THE SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN ONTARIO. 461 
THE SETTLEMENT OF NORTHERN ONTARIO. 
BY THOMAS SOUTHWORTH. 
(Read 17th April, tgo09). 
ONTARIO is very rich in natural resources of various kinds; resources 
that are exhaustible, such as minerals; resources that are exhaustible but 
that may be renewed, such as water and forest; and resources that are 
inexhaustible in the shape of agricultural soil. 
So far as the first resource is concerned, all we can do is to prevent 
waste. No efiort on our part can increase our resource in minerals or per- 
petuate it if it is used. Water, on the other hand, so far as its purpose 
for power and transportation is concerned, is dependent for its perman- 
ence upon the way we treat the soil, whether we denude it entirely of its 
timber growth, or whether we protect the head waters of the streams by 
keeping the land, which in most cases in these localities is unsuited for 
agricultural production, in forest. 
Just what the proper proportion of wooded to cleared land should be 
to properly protect our immense wealth in water powers, is a question 
not definitely settled, but it is pretty generally conceded that at 
least a fifth of the area of a country such as ours should be kept tree 
covered. Fortunately for us the physical conditions of this Province are 
such that there is not likely to be any difficulty in maintaining more than 
that proportion of our area in forest. Even if we were to eliminate the 
wood lot that every farmer should maintain on his farm, there would still 
be the necessary proportion of forest land if the area that is quite unfitted 
for agriculture were maintained in forest. 
For the better understanding of the position, Ontario may be divided 
into four divisions. First there is the strip of country along the St. 
Lawrence, Lakes Ontario, EKrie and Huron and Georgian Bay, where 
population is most dense, and where agriculture has been most developed. 
North of this is what may be termed the permanent, or what should be 
the permanent forest area of the Province, taking in the Laurentian 
Range, and incluaing the height of land dividing the waters flowing into 
the St. Lawrence system from those flowing into Hudson’s Bay. North 
of that again, there is an agricultural area stretching from the Quebec 
