CLEARING BUSH LANDS IN BRITISH 

 COLUMBIA. 



N the Lower Fraser Valley and Coast Districts of British Columbia 

 there is practically no naturally clear, open land except lands which 

 flood every year, and which are usually covered with a rank growth of 

 grass (either broad-leafed swamp-grass, blue-joint, or red-top), or con- 

 sist of swamps more or less peaty in character, requiring ditching and 

 under-draining, and often also some light clearing. Land which does 

 not flood and is not swampy is invariably timbered, the timber being 

 scattered first-growth fir and cedar 3 to 5 feet in diameter, groves of second-growth 

 fir 12 to 24 inches in diameter, mixed all through with alder, maple, cherry, birch, 

 and crab-apple, with patches of vine-maple, willow and hazel, berry-bushes, rose- 

 bushes, and hardback (in the wet places), with occasional fir and cedar logs 

 scattered through the whole, at first sight presenting a pretty hard-looking tangle. 

 This represents in a general way the average character of the timbered land of the 

 Lower Fraser Valley and Coast Districts, none of which requires irrigation. 



In the Interior districts are large areas of open range land covered with bunch 

 and other similar nutritious grasses and almost invariably requiring irrigation. 

 There are also large areas timbered, almost entirely with the coniferous woods, 

 chiefly fir and pine, with no underbrush, the trees being fairly large, from 2 to 4 feet 

 in diameter. Some of this land requires irrigation, although there are portions of 

 it which will produce grain and other crops with the natural moisture. There are 

 also in most of the Interior districts patches of bottom land timbered with small 

 willow, cottonwood, etc., and with very few large trees, which do not require 

 irrigation. 



The various clearing operations described herein will apply to any of the 

 timbered districts of the Province, although they are written more particularly with 

 reference to the Coast and Lower Fraser Valley Districts and to those parts of the 

 Province lying to the west of the Cascade Mountains, as these districts are the ones 

 wherein the clearing problem assumes most prominence. 



It should, however, be distinctly understood that the operations described are 

 not intended to apply to timbered lands which would come under the head of timber 

 limits, as the timber on such lands could not be cleared off for farming at any price 

 which would make it commercially profitable, even if the character of the land when 

 cleared was suitable for farming, which, often, it is not. 



The character of the soil of the average timbered uplands of the Lower Fraser 

 Valley and Coast Districts is a good clay loam, free from gravel or stones except 

 perhaps in odd spots, no rock, more or less rolling as to surface, with wet bottoms 

 and occasional creeks running through. There is, however, a great variety of soil 

 in this district, running all the way from a heavy alluvial clay to a light sandy or 

 gravelly loam. The soil in the Interior valleys varies also very greatly in different 

 districts, and soil suitable for almost any kind of crop desired ran b> obtained. 



WHEN AND HOW TO BEGIN. 



The settler intending to take up and clear bush land in this Province should 

 arrive here between March 1st and June 1st. as after the latter date there is no 

 time to do more than one month's chopping before the burning season be-ins, and 

 all hough chopping, or slashing, as it is commonly called, can be d-mo at any time 

 of the year even before April 1st, it is not advisable. Arriving here in March 1. 

 the new-comer a month in which to select his land, as the sap in the deciduous 

 trees has not commenced to run. and trees of this clas<. su-h as vino-maple, willow, 

 ha/el, and, to some extent, also alder, will sprout much stronger if cut when the 



