258 REPORT OF THE No. 3 



shaped peninsula which separates the waters of West Lake — a lake five miles 

 in two dimensions — from Lake Ontario. The peninsula is three-quarters of a 

 mile wide at its base and extends five miles in a north-westerly direction until 

 it reaches the town of Wellington in a narrow point. From its orientation, it 

 will be seen that part of the peninsula lies at right angles to the prevailing 

 winds of Ontario. Because of this, much excellent land farm has for years 

 been continually spoiled or covered up by drifting sand. Since this section 

 of the country was first surveyed in 1852, it is estimated that 85 acres of good 

 land have been covered with drifting soil. 



The planting material used in this work consisted of Carolina poplar cut- 

 tings and green willow cuttings and limb material. Belts were planted one 

 hundred feet apart, each belt consisting of one row of limb material and five 

 to seven rows of cuttings, and were planted at right angles to the prevailing winds. 

 The area planted would aggregate 150 acres and covers the part of the banks 

 where the despoiling of agricultural land is most imminent. 



Seed Collecting. 



The Forestry Branch endeavors, as far as possible, to secure in the Province 

 all seed used for the growing of nursery stock. The only exception, which is 

 made in this regard, is Scotch pine seed. This tree, not being a native of Amer- 

 ica, the seed must necessarily be imported until trees of our own growing have 

 become old enough to supply our needs. A quantity of Scotch and jack pine 

 cones were gathered from the plantations at St. Williams; also 140 bushels of 

 jack pine cones were gathered at a lumbering operation in Northern Ontario 

 during the winter. 



One of the most useful species for reforesting in Ontario is our native red 

 pine. It grows well on poor soil, has few enemies, and is valuable for timber 

 purposes. The only drawback in its use is the infrequency of its seed years. 

 The season of 1921 was a good seed year for the species. The crop was not 

 as general as the crop of 1913 was reported to have been, but groups of trees 

 in the area covered, bore a maximum crop of cones. 



The collecting of this species was confined to a section of Simcoe County, 

 lying between Angus, Lisle and Tioga, which includes a large section of Camp 

 Borden. Through the liberality of the Air Board in granting the use of a 

 building for extracting purposes, and by co-operation in other ways, the work 

 was carried on more expeditiously. It is doubtful whether a more suitable 

 area than this for collecting red pine seed exists in the province. Here, the 

 trees occur scattered in pure stands, and growing in. this way, they have as- 

 sumed the form of open grown trees which increases their value for seed collect- 

 ing purposes. 



The extracting of the seeds is carried on at the forestry station at St. Wil- 

 liams and also at Angus, where large quantities of seed have been gathered the 

 last two years. Both plants handle the material which is gathered locally. 

 The larger one is at Angus, and has a capacity of 20 bushels of red pine or 75 

 bushels of white spruce per 8-hour day. Two men do all the work, including 

 firing, turning and filling the drums and cleaning of seed. 



During this season, the crop of most hardwood seeds was poor. It was 

 impossible to secure quantities of such useful trees as maple, white ash, and 

 elm. 



