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able necessary outlay involved in its establishment, 

 serves also as a "model" for the instruction and en- 

 couragement of the many workmen who settle upon 

 parcels of the company's estate. 



The preliminary operations of clearing the thous- 

 ands of sturdy giants of the woods, root and branch, 

 with the smaller timber, bush, tangled undergrowth, 

 ferns and all out of sight and mind, were of the 

 greatest use as object lessons, and so with the drain- 

 age, classification and mixture or dressing of soils, 

 comprising almost every kind clay, peat, loam, 

 gravelly loam, light sandy soil, and black vegetable 

 soil. Under the direction of Mr. Robins dressings 

 of the peaty soil from swampy low lands have been 

 applied to the gravelly soil of which the up lands 

 mostly consist with excellent effect, in fact, it acts like 

 manure. On the other hand, a top dressing of grav- 

 elly soil, carted from the hill side, and spread over 

 the peaty land, has an equally beneficial result. The 

 explanation of this is, that mixing the inert peat soil, 

 with the sand or gravel, makes an open soil, which 

 allows access to the air, and so converts the dead 

 chemical matter into plant food. In short, whilst 

 the peat alone, and the gravel alone, will grow almost 

 nothing, the two mixed together, produce abundant 

 crops. The heaviest crop of timothy hay produced 

 in the district was grown on soil that was little better 

 than road metal (gravel), but had been top dressed 

 with peat from a neighbouring swamp. The com- 

 pany has laid about sixty miles of drain tiles, from 

 three inch to twelve inch diameter and has excavated 

 several miles of open ditches throughout the farm 

 and meadow lands. 



In the matter of roads, both as to excellence of 

 construction and finishin most instances they are well 

 crowned and coated with a thick layer of gravel, the 

 company are accorded much praise by the occupiers 

 of the five acre lots and also by the public at large 

 these efficient roads, on the whole, are quite twenty 

 miles in length, and include substantial bridges over 

 Chase River and other streams. 



