Replanting in Norfolk, Ont. 



The following article is abbreviated 

 from the London Free Press which news- 

 paper also kindly loaned the accompany- 

 ing engravings. 



There is perhaps no other section of 

 country in Ontario which has gone through 

 the successive changes that may now be 

 traced in the lower part of Norfolk 

 County, in the famous sand-blown lands 

 near St. Williams. Nor, possibly, any- 

 where in Ontario, is there a movement that 

 has more of interest in the results that are 

 being produced than this joint w^ork of re- 

 forestation and producing treelets for the 

 whole province that is being carried ou 

 here. For the work that the Ontario Gov- 

 ernment is carrying on at its nursery sta- 

 tions here is of a double character, being 

 applied not only to sand ridges of Norfolk 

 County but made also the center from 

 which go out all over Ontario the little 

 trees that some day will be turned into 

 wealth for this province. 



From this Norfolk nursery station there 

 are now being sent out each year hundreds 

 of thousands of little treelets. These go 

 to farmers, to municipalities and to com- 

 panies owning timber lands. The City of 

 Guelph two or three years ago set out 

 property a few miles outside the city. It 

 is the belief of the Guelph waterworks 

 board that eventually they will have a 

 steady revenue coming in from their forest 

 area. On the property there was consid- 

 erable standing timber when it was pur- 

 chased. A certain amount has been cut 

 out and sold at intervals and this will be- 

 come a regular practice when the forest 

 area has been further developed. 



Norfolk County Changes. 



Norfolk County, where the Government 

 work is carried on, was one of the earliest 

 settled counties of western Ontario. There 

 were settlers in this district at the opening 

 of last century, many of them United Em- 

 pire Loyalists. The men who came in first 

 found the whole country a forest and faced 

 the task of clearing up their land before 

 they could grow anything. It was a task 

 the nature of which is hard to appreciate 

 in these days w^hen the older counties are 

 so well cleared up. The farm which now 

 forms the center of the Government's 

 operations was settled as early as 1804, yet 

 in 1908 it was bought by the forestry 

 branch for $5 an acre, and other near-by 

 farms have been sold at a figure equally 

 low. The reason is that in the century of 

 its existence this farm property had under- 

 gone changes which made the price paid 

 all that it was really worth. From forest 

 to farm was the first transformation, then 

 followed many years of tilling, during 

 which its occupants 'never allowed any- 

 thing in the nature of a crop to get above 

 the ground without taking it off. ' The 

 result was inevitable. Year by year the 

 productive power decreased; eventually 

 there were fields that did not return suf- 

 ficient to pay for the labour put upon 

 them, then the owners and tenants moved 

 elsewhere or took up some other work. The 

 abandoned farm followed, saddest sight of 

 all in this land of good farms and rich or- 

 chards and gardens. 



The Sand Ridges. 



Those who travelled through South Nor- 



IN NORFOLK COUNTY. 



Wf^'^^V 



This gives an idea of how tlie soil has disappeared since the forest was cut away 

 and shows how young trees are again taking root. 



151 



