Forest Protection in Canada, 1912 



189 



coniferous trees began. The species were 

 white spruce, Scotch pine and tamarack. 



A beginning has been made in planting 

 on the Spruce Woods Keserve near Bran- 

 don and on the Turtle Mountain Reserve 

 in Southern Manitoba. On the former over 

 50,200 trans-plants were living, and on the 

 latter a plantation of 14,000 Scotch pine 

 was doing well. Preparations for much 

 larger planting operations on the Spruce 

 Woods Reserve were under way. Seven 

 thousand five hundred transplants on the 

 Riding Mountain Reserve were doing well. 

 Planting had not been considered neces- 

 sary on the Rocky Mountains Reserve as 

 natural reproduction was excellent. Seed- 

 ing had not been successful except in cer- 

 tain spots on the Turtle Mountain Reserve. 



The Canadian Pacific Railway of which 

 company Mr. R. D. Prettie is superintend- 

 ent of Forestry had planted 1,356,200 trees 

 along its main line between Calgary and 

 Winnipeg. These trees were grown at the 

 company's nursery at Wolseley, Sask. The 

 object was to form windbreaks and thus 

 do away with the necessity for maintain- 

 ing portable snow fences to prevent the 

 difting of snow across the railway tracks. 

 The loss and renewal of these trees had 

 not exceeded ten per cent. The company 

 also had set out 25,000 tamarack trees near 

 Wolseley to determine the feasibility of 

 growing railway ties and fence posts. The 

 average height of trees in this plantation 

 in 1912 was 9 ft. and the diameter 18 

 inches from the ground 1^ inches. The 

 height growth for the season of 1912 was 

 1 ft. 8 inches. The company was also giv- 

 ing prizes to induce settlers on its lands 

 to grow trees about their farm buildings. 



Forest planting in Ontario is described 

 in the report by a statement taken from 

 the report of Mr. E. J. Zavitz provincial 

 forester of Ontario. It was estimated that 

 about 10,000,000 acres in Southern Ontario 

 was suited only to forest growth. As much 

 of this had been cut off the Ontario Gov- 

 ernment had embarked on a scheme of co- 

 operation by which advice and planting 

 material were furnished free of charge to 

 parties planting wood lots. Up to 1912 1, 

 500,000 trees had been sent out from the 

 Provincial nurseries. The planting had 

 been chiefly on waste soils, such as sand 

 formations. The forest nursery station in 

 Norfolk county contained 1,500 acres in 

 1912. This station was being planted up 

 with experimental plantations, and was 

 also being used as the source of supply for 

 nursery stock. Legislation was passed in 

 1911 permitting counties to acquire and 

 operate land for forest plantations. The 

 county of Hastings had sceured 2,200 acres 

 of cut over lands and the purchase of addi- 

 tional lands was contemplated. Fire pro- 

 tection and natural restocking from seed 

 trees would be the policy pursued for the 



present. Other counties were looking into 

 the matter. 



The statement in regard to Quebec was 

 prepared from the report of the Minister 

 of Lands and Forests and from a state- 

 ment by Mr. G. C. Pich6, chief of the Que- 

 bec Forest Service. The Government had 

 a nursery station at Berthierville where 

 seedlings were supplied to farmers to plant 

 their woodlots and where seedlings were 

 also grown to plant up sand land areas, 

 such as at Lachute, acquired by the Gov- 

 ernment. These were acquired at the rate 

 of $1 per acre with the agreement that the 

 former owners might reacquire them upon 

 paying the cost of the planting which it 

 was guaranteed would not exceed $10 per 

 acre. Twenty-five acres at Lachute were 

 reforested in 1912. It was intended to 

 assist the rural communities by establish- 

 ing township reserves where the inhabit- 

 ants might cut wood required for their real 

 wants. 



Mr. EUwood Wilson forester for the 

 Laurentide Company furnishes the data 

 for the planting of that company which 

 in 1912 had reached fifty acres. The trees 

 used were Scotch, white and jack pine, 

 white and Norway spruce, hemlock and 

 basswood. The company expected to plant 

 200,000 trees per year and would plant up 

 its waste lands with the object of supply- 

 ing wood for making pulp and paper. Dif- 

 ferent methods of cutting were being tried 

 with the object of testing reproduction. 



On account of the excellent natural re- 

 production in the Maritime Provinces the 

 necessity for artificial planting had not 

 been strongly felt iuere up to the present. 

 The great need was instruction in the best 

 methods of handling existing timber lands. 

 Nothing in the way of encouraging re- 

 planting had been done by the govern- 

 ments but there had been some planting 

 under private initiative. 



With the assitsance of Mr. R. B. Miller, 

 Professor of Forestry in the University of 

 New Brunswick, Dr. A. R. Myers had 

 planted fifteen acres of white pine near 

 Moncton, N.B. The Pejepscot Paper Com- 

 pany had a nursery at Salmon River, N.B. 

 and another at Cookshire, Quebec, with the 

 idea of planting its cut over lands. 



The Rhodes-Curry Company of Amherst, 

 N.S., had planted about fifteen acres of 

 Norway spruce seedlings on smoe of its 

 burnt over lands near Little River, N.S. 

 The object of these plantations was to get 

 (lata as to the probable success of larger 

 efforts. 



Committee on Forests. 



Part VI. embodies the report of the 

 Committee on Forests made to the Commis- 

 sion of Conservation in 1912. A synopsis 

 of this was published at the time. The re- 

 commendations are as important as they 

 then were and include the following: that 



