182 



Canadian Forestry Journal^ December, 1913 



the Department indicated that the Pro- 

 vince of Ontario had on lands of which the 

 whole title both to land and timber re- 

 mained in the Crown, at least thirteen and 

 one half billion (13,500,000,000) feet of 

 red and white pine; and on lands licensed 

 to lumbermen about seven billion feet of 

 red and white pine. Of spruce pulp wood 

 the stand on Crown lands was at least 

 three hundred million cords. Turning 

 these into dollars they had an asset in 

 timber of three or four hundred million 

 dollars, and that was without taking into 

 consideration the hardwood or any wood 

 outside of red and white pine and spruce. 



One of the steps that had been taken 

 with reference to the conservation of tim- 

 ber was the formation of forest reserves 

 and national parks. These were as fol- 

 lows: — Temagami Forest Reserve 5,900 

 square miles, Mississaga 3,000 square miles, 

 Nipigon 7,300, Algonquin Park 2,066 

 square miles, Sibley Reserve 70 square 

 miles. Eastern Reserve in Frontenac Coun- 

 ty 100 square miles, Quetico Forest Re- 

 serve 1,700 square miles, and Rondeau 

 Park, a small park on Lake Erie. 



In all the province had over 20,000 

 square miles in forest reserves and provin- 

 cial parks, and in these reserves they had 

 at least ten billion (10,000,000,000) feet of 

 pine, and possibly twenty million (20,- 

 000,000), cords of pulpwood. These re- 

 serves and parks were lands that were not 

 adapted for settlement, and it was not in- 

 tended to let settlement into them, or to 

 endanger the preservation of the timber. 

 In Algonquin Park they had received back 

 into the Crown a number of licenses that 

 originally existed for the cutting of tim- 

 ber, and they hoped in the near future to 

 have all the title to the timber in that 

 park. 



Mr. Hearst pointed out that conservation 

 did not tolerate the waste that would re- 

 sult from locking up timber. Trees ripen- 

 ed just like other crops, and unless cut 

 within a reasonable time they began to 

 decay and were eventiially entirely lost. 

 So, one of the problems they had was to 

 arrange to harvest the ripe .crop so that 

 the most might be obtained from it for 

 the province and for commerce and indus- 

 try, and still retain the unmatured trees so 

 that the benefit from them may be reaped 

 by the generations that come after. In 

 this problem he asked the hearty sympathy 

 and co-operation of the lumbermen of On- 

 tario. 



So much for lands not suited to agricul- 

 ture. On lands fit for settlement the pro- 

 blem was to find the best method of get- 

 ting off the timber to get the most out of 

 it and at the same time benefit the incom- 

 ing settler. The only practicable solution 

 that he knew was to encourage the estab- 

 lishment of industries that would manu- 

 facture the timber from the settler's land. 



This would aid the industries of the coun- 

 try and would give a market to the set- 

 tler so as to enable him to get some re- 

 turn from his work in clearing his land. 



Already considerable had been done in 

 that line in saw mills and related indus- . 

 tries. On the north side of the Height of 

 Land pine ceased and the timber of great- 

 est importance there was spruce and other 

 soft woods. There had been established at 

 Sault Ste Marie, Spanish River, Sturgeon 

 Falls, Fort Frances and Dryden large pulp 

 and paper plants which would work up this 

 timber, and at the present time a very 

 large plant was being constructed in the 

 Abitibi district. In the near future they 

 expected to have more similar plants. 



Reforesting Sand Lands. 



This was the situation in regard to tim- 

 ber lands unfit for settlement, and those 

 fit for farming and into which settlement 

 was being directed. There was a third 

 class of lands, namely, those not fit for 

 settlement but which owing to mistakes 

 in the past (and he was not blaming any- 

 one) had been cleared and cultivated. In 

 the old part of Ontario a careful estimate 

 indicated that about 9% was in woodland 

 of a more or less inferior character, and 

 that probably as much more might be bet- 

 ter employed in growing timber than for 

 any other purpose owing to the character 

 of the soil. In other words they had in 

 southern Ontario approximately ten mil- 

 lion acres of wood land or land which was 

 only fit for timber. These lands were pri- 

 vately owned, and the Province was en- 

 deavoring to encourage the owners to de- 

 velop their woodlots and reforest the 

 waste places that were now totally unpro- 

 ductive. It was to be expected that they 

 would make rather slow progress in this 

 educative work, for even in Germany, per- 

 haps the most advanced country in the 

 world in forestry, the privately owned 

 woodlots were in anything but a satisfac- 

 tory condition. In 1906 an Act was passed 

 permitting municipal councils to pass by- 

 laws exempting woodlots from taxation, 

 but so far as he knew this had never yet 

 been taken advantage of. 



In 1905 a forestry station was estab- 

 lished at Guelph under the Department of 

 Agriculture, which acted as a bureau of 

 information for the province generally. 

 Last year this station was transferred to 

 his own Department of Lands, Forests and 

 Mines, and since then the work had been 

 carried out on a somewhat larger scale. 

 The nurseries had been removed to St. Wil- 

 liams in Norfolk County. Here they had 

 acquired about sixteen hundred acres of 

 sand lands for forest plantations, where 

 they were carrying on perhaps the most 

 extensive exemplification of forestry that 

 was to be found in the Dominion. They 

 were doing this to show by actual demon- 



