REASONS FOR THE SURVEY 



The region tinder consideration lies on Archsean rock, planed by- 

 glacial action, and not easily disintegrated ; it is covered with only a 

 thin soil which is easily washed into the streams, and, hence, the danger 

 of turning it into an irredeemable waste is much more imminent than 

 it would be in many other localities. 



The effect of repeated fires, such as still occur quite generally, 

 on the future of the forest cover can be studied in this region with con- 

 siderable precision, and this has been done in a most painstaking man- 

 ner by Dr. Howe. The financial aspect of this question of fire loss 

 would alone justify this inquiry. If the reader will turn to page 60 

 and the following pages, where this aspect of the situation is dis- 

 cussed, he will be enabled to realize that this is more than an 

 academic problem. 



Here is a sample area of thousands of square miles in other parts 

 of the Eastern provinces, and the conditions in this watershed are by 

 no means extraordinary. They repeat themselves wherever axe and 

 fire have been permitted to destroy the original growth in the Archaean 

 rock cotmtry, that is to say, wherever lumbering under the license 

 system has been permitted, without safeguarding the property as a 

 producer. The sequence of this mismanagement is everywhere the 

 same. The removal either of the best or of all timber, without disposing 

 of the debris, leaves a slash which is invariably subject to fire ; after 

 this, a loss of interest takes place on the part of the licensee and, what 

 is still worse, on the part of the government. Nature then attempts 

 to reproduce the forest and this is followed by a repetition of the fires, 

 which kill the seed trees and seedlings of the better kinds. The groimd 

 is then re-covered by aspen and birch for a time ; but, through repeated 

 conflagrations, it is finally rendered useless for any productive purpose. 

 A similar sequence takes place in connection with the small-farm 

 portions : at first, through the home market made by the lumbermen, 

 a fair living may be made by the occupant ; gradually this market 

 vanishes and the soil becomes worked out ; the surface wears away, 

 the rocks are exposed, and the people are left destitute and miserable. 



There is still another reason for the prosecution of the survey and 

 that lies in the fact that a portion of the population of this region 

 occupies farms unfit for sustaining civilized conditions. Not only 

 have many farms been abandoned by the removal of their occupants 

 to more hopeful conditions, but a considerable niunber that ought to 

 be abandoned remain occupied by those who lack the means and energy 

 to move, thus forming a poverty-stricken commvmity. A far-reaching 

 poUcy for the management of this region must include a plan for the 

 removal of this degenerating population. 



