52 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



opportunity presents itself for intelligent and comprehensive 

 action which will, if carried out, be of great benefit to future 

 generations. 



The French, Maganatewan, Muskoka, Severn, Trent, Moira, 

 Rideau, Mississippi, Madawaska, Bonnechere, Petawahweh and 

 Mattawan Rivers, with their sources in lakes and swamps, 

 all rise from a common plateau, largely unfit for cultivation, still 

 chiefly in forest, and much of it still in the hands of the crown. 

 They all possess excellent water-powers, many even now near to 

 industrial centres, and up to the present time developed only to a 

 very limited extent. Much of this central plateau is still in virgin 

 forest, but much more has been cut or burnt over, and much part- 

 ly cleared, on which thousands of families are eking out a meagre 

 and precarious existence on land which would be much better 

 occupied if devoted to the growth of another forest of pine and 

 other trees indigenous to the region. 



Those who have studied re-foresting will be agreed that 

 to re-forest on cleared land means close planting as otherwise the 

 trees form their limbs near the ground and become less valuable as 

 timber. But to re-forest a large area of cleared land in this 

 manner would be beyond the means even of a Government, and 

 therefore the idea suggests itself that the proper course to pursue 

 would be to hold this central plateau as it is at present, (and pos- 

 sibly even to re-forest some partly cleared or cut over districts), 

 to limit the cutting of timber to ripe trees only, under crown 

 supervision; to replant from nurseries, and guard from fires, and 

 in connection therewith to gradually create a system of storages 

 for water near the sources of the various rivers mentioned ; lakes 

 already exist in abundance: all that is needed is the construction 

 of inexpensive dams to supplement those that have already been 

 built by the Dominion Government on the Trent Canal, and else- 

 where by lumbermen, and to place the control of the flow of water 

 from these various reservoirs in the hands of proper parties, 

 interested in making the most of the water-powers dependant on 

 these lakes for the uniformity of their supply of water. 



The question involved in this district thus presents two 

 phases: one, the improvement of water-powers possessing 

 wonderful natural storage, and amounting when developed to 

 200,000 or 300,000 horse-power, representing at least 1,500,000 

 tons of coal per year, and on the other hand the upbuilding of an 

 extensive forest district naturally adapted to the growth of pine, 

 but largely unfit for cultivation. 



(C) Southern Quebec. The Yamaska, St. Francis and 

 Chaudiere with. other smaller rivers, have their sources in the 

 foothills of the Notre Dame or White Mountains, and possess 

 valuable lake storage, and while this district is largely arable and 

 fairlv well cleared, there are considerable areas which it would pay 



