Reforestation in Manitoba. 



What will be easily the largest re- 

 forestation project in the Dominion 

 of Canada, and, indeed, one of the 

 largest on this continent, is being 

 entered upon by the Forestry Branch 

 of the Department of the Interior, 

 the area to be reforested being the 

 Spruce Woods Forest Reserve, in 

 Manitoba. 

 The Spruce Woods Forest Reserve. 



The Spruce Woods l-'orcsf lu-sfi"ve. 

 as deteriniiied by the Dinninion Fonst 

 liescrvcs and Parks Act, 1911, com- 

 prises a total area of some two hun- 

 dred and twenty five square miles 

 (144,000 acres) of light, sandy land 

 lying to the south of the main line 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway 

 from about the middle of Range 12 

 to the western boundary of Range 

 16, west of the principal meridian, 

 or, approximately, from Panser to 

 Ilooten sidings on the railway. 



The western boundary of the re- 

 serve thus approaches within four- 

 teen miles of the city of Brandon, 

 while the extreme easterly boundary 

 is located some eighty miles west of 

 Winnipeg. 



It is traversed also at the extreme 

 northwest l)y the Canadian Northern 

 Railway line from Brandon to Port- 

 age la Prairie, the station at Onah 

 being within the reserve. The re- 

 serve is protected along the line of 

 the railway by plowed fireguards. 



The soil is light and sandy and 

 unfit for farming. The only branch 

 of agriculture which can be carried 

 on with any degree of success 

 at all is grazing. Many attempts 

 have been made in past years to 

 farm it and homestead after home- 

 stead has been taken up only to be 

 abandoned. 



Included in the reserve is quite a 

 large area of swampy land in which 

 a good growth of tamarack is found. 



The problem of the reserve is 

 essentially one of reforestation. The 



sand hills bear a sparse growth of 

 white spruce of good size, the exist- 

 ence of which is proof positive of the 

 suitability of the region for the 

 growth of a coniferous forest. In 

 1904 and succeeding years, up to 

 1908, a large number of two-year- 

 old Scotch pine were planted. Ow- 

 ing to unfavorable weather at the 

 time of planting, the first planting 

 of some ten thousand trees was only 

 partly successful, and in the spring 

 of 1907 it was burned over. Small 

 sowings of Scotch pine, jack pine 

 and lodgepole pine were made at the 

 same time, but the sowing has not 

 met with very good success. A total 

 of about twenty five acres has been 

 planted with the two-year-old stock. 

 F'urther and more extensive plant- 

 ing was done in 1905, 1906 and 1908, 

 the total number of trees planted 

 being about seventy thousand. The 

 soil in which the trees were plan^ 

 was almost pure sand. ^ 



Mr. Kirk wood, who has been put 

 in charge of the nursery work in the 

 reserve, reported under date of Sep- 

 tember 9th last, that this plantation 

 is doing well and is of the opinion 

 that this species will succeed. 



The average cost of the planting 

 has been about $5 per acre. The 

 two-year seedlings used cost consid- 

 erably less than $1 per thousand, 

 dug and ready for planting. 



Scotch pine was used, not because 

 it was considered especially suitable 

 for planting, but for the sole reason 

 that it was most convenient to ob- 

 tain the seed and raise the plants. 

 White spruce is native on the re- 

 serve. Seed can now easily be ob- 

 tained and the plants seem to be 

 very hardy and suitable for plant- 

 ing. 



With the idea of entering upon 

 extensive reforestation work on the 

 reserve the Forestry Branch has 

 established forest nurseries at Onah 



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