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('.(UuidKui Forest nj Journal, June, 1918 



The Mill and the Farmer in Northern 



Ontario 



Ontario's Claybell urea Ijclween 

 the Quebec border and Hearst, alon^ 

 the National Transcontinental Rail- 

 way olTers one of the best possible 

 illustrations of a wori-cin.e partnership 

 between the forest and the farm. 

 The lands are heavily covered with 

 spruce and balsam and poplar, spruce 

 running as high as 80 to 90 percent, 

 of the stand. The newly-arrived 

 farmer must clear his lands of the 

 tree growth as a preliminaiy to 

 field crops. In his first two years he 

 cannot hope to open up enough soil 

 to gjve him a profit, but with the 

 aid oT the pulpwood selling at the 

 track for $7 and $7.50 a cord (un- 

 rossed), he can manage to make 

 satisfactory wages while clearing his 

 property. It is, therefore, contrary 

 to the settlers' financial interests that 

 the forest materials should be wasted 

 in the clearing process through whole- 

 sale conflagrations. A much more 

 potent argument against destructive 

 fires is the necessity of having in the 

 Claybelt country industrial towns to 

 furnish a market for farm products 

 (including pulpwood) and to pro- 

 vide periodical employment. Such 



a combination is seen at Iroriuois 

 Falls, where the Abit'bi Power and 

 Paper Company has a pay list of 

 SI 10,000 a month and will buy every 

 pound of farm produce raised in the 

 surrounding country for many years 

 to come. Results of the same nature 

 will follow the new pulp mill at 

 Kapuskasing, to be erected by the 

 Spruce Falls Pulp and Paper Com- 

 pany, of which Mr. E. Stewart, 

 Toronto, (former Director of For- 

 estry) is Managing Director. This 

 plant will create an industrial town 

 on the C. G. R. at one edge of the 

 soldiers' settlement. It will provide 

 not only a centre of employment 

 and immediate buyer for settlers' 

 wood, but will make a produce 

 market in which every soldier-settler 

 can dispose of his goods at the best 

 prices. The location of these mills in 

 the spruce-covered Claybelt supple- 

 ments in a most valuable manner the 

 cause of settlement. There appears 

 to be plenty of spruce to keep the 

 mills supplied with raw material, if 

 forest fires are suppressed with every 

 means in the power of the Forest 

 Service. 



Forest Fires Taking Serious Toll 



Outbreaks in Nova Scotia and New 

 Brunswick Result in Substantial Losses 



Forest fires have caused large losses 

 during May and June. New Bruns- 

 wick and Nova Scotia have suffered 

 forest damages that will probably 

 prove the heaviest for many years 

 past. 



Nova Scotia, which has enjoyed 

 recent immunity from serious fire 

 trouble, has been obliged to witness 

 the destruction of substantial tracts of 

 badly-needed timber and the burning 



of improved property which in the 

 total will form a large sum. Com- 

 plete reports of the Nova Scotia 

 fires have not reached Halifax at the 

 time this issue of the Forestry 

 Journal goes to press. Newspaper 

 reports, however, and some private 

 information show that the series of 

 fires during June placed a severe 

 test upon the Nova Scotia system, 

 and mav cause some revision of 



