RESULTS OF THE SURVEY 11 



Farming Conditions — The fact that, half a century after the 

 opening of this region to settlement, its 2,100 square miles contain 

 less than 15,000 people, and that hardly 10 per cent of the area of all 

 the 35 townships included in the survey has been cleared for farm 

 purposes, would indicate that it is not suitable for agriculture. Indeed, 

 if the five best townships, so far as farm land is concerned, Chandos, 

 Marmora, Minden, Somerville, and WoUaston, are omitted, the remain- 

 der averages little more than 8 per cent of cleared land, and only about 

 1.5 per cent is tilled land, the other 6.5 per cent being found in the 

 shape of more or less fair pasture land. Further evidence of the mis- 

 fortunes which come from farming rocks or the shallow glacial drift 

 covering them, is furnished by the abandoned farms which are found 

 through the whole region in large numbers, and which are sold from time 

 to time for non-payment of taxes at less than 6 cents per acre on the 

 average.* In consequence, during the last decade, the decrease of the 

 population has been 15 per cent, as against 5 per cent decrease of 

 rural population in the whole province. This is, of course, a desirable 

 solution of the problem, for it is to be expected that those who left are 

 elsewhere doing better than merely eking out a precarious existence ; 

 the land which they left, being fit for nothing else but forest growth, 

 gradually reforests itself. 



There is, of course, the excuse that the results could not be foreseen ; 

 that the province needed the revenues from the timber limits ; and that 

 the settlement on these farms at the time when the lumbermen's business 

 was thriving was a natural result. The further excuse may be made 

 that, at the time in question, employment in the lumber camps pro- 

 vided an additional source of income for the support of these people. 

 Even though this be true, it does not alter the fact that the time for 

 correction of the policy is now at hand. Here is a native population, 

 the welfare of which should be of more concern than that of new immi- 

 grants. Here is a natural resource to be recuperated for the sole purpose 

 for which it is adapted. 



Forest Conditions — The original forest on the lower watersheds 

 was to the extent of fully two-thirds, a magnificent pinery, or in part 

 hardwood with white pine admixture ; the other third was a pure hard- 

 wood forest, of which maple and beech formed 75 to 85 per cent, and hem- 

 lock 2.5 per cent. Now, the white pine is all but removed, and, with 

 the exception of 700 acres still virgin, the whole lower watershed is more 

 or less severely culled. The pinery has been burnt over at least once 

 and in most places several times. 



* 194 of these farms were for sale in 1911, 



