56 COMMISS ION OF CONSERVATION 



found in such situations. The best situations for the balsam are the benches or 

 terraces from 10 to 20 feet above the streams, while the cedar predominates on the 

 present erosion channels of the streams. The reproduction of white pine, however, 

 is chiefly confined to tlie moist depressions between the ridges and to the edges of 

 the swamps where occasional seed trees still stand. In the latter situation, on the 

 average, 28 balsam and IG white pine sapUngs and poles were found per acre. A 

 sample strip a chain wide and 135 chains long (13.5 acres) over the ridges and 

 through the depressions, disclosed 11 white pine sapUngs and poles per acre. Five 

 acres of this strip, however, averaged 28 young pine trees to the acre. Here two 

 seed trees per acre had been spared both by fire and by the lumberman. The greater 

 reproduction in this case shows the wisdom of leaving a few seed trees. 



Ansirulher. — In the township of Anstruther nearly 35,000 acres, or 51.4 per cent, 

 of the land area has been burned. A good portion has been burned three times, 

 with the result that the originally thin soil overlying the granite ridges has been 

 destroyed and the interior of the township, especially, very closely approaches 

 desert conditions. The pine reproduction was counted on 50 acres, and it was found 

 to average 8 pine saplings and poles per acre. The pine stumps from former cuttings 

 average 80 per acre. No seed trees remain. If these 8 young trees are allowed 

 to mature, then the repeated fires have reduced the potential value of the land in 

 terms of pine by nine-tenths. North of this area a 20-acre plot revealed only one red 

 pine and three white pine sapUngs per acre. A strip containing 12 acres west of the 

 Twin lakes contained an average of 8.7 young pices per acre. These areas have 

 been burned twice in the past 20 years and they were formerly pure pineries. 



Aroimd many of the lakes and in the ravines there are patches of second growth 

 30 years old, evidently arising from a fire, which show good reproduction of pine. 

 For example, on the shores of Twin lakes in lots 30 and 31, in the 11th concession, 

 there are, on an acre, 34 saphngs and 54 poles of white pine, also 1 sapUng and 4 poles 

 of red pine. On the slopes rising from swamps and in the numerous deep gullies in 

 this vicinitjr one finds dense thickets of balsam about 30 years old. One of these 

 contained on an acre the following : 



Species — Poles Saplings Total Per cent 



Balsam 155 1,625 1780 73.4 



Paper Birch 20 410 430 17.7 



White Pine 30 55 85 3.5 



Red Maple 15 30 45 1.9 



Red Oak 20 15 35 1.5 



Pin Cherry 5 15 20 0.8 



Poplar 5 10 15 0.6 



Red Pine 5 5 10 0.4 



Black Spruce 5 5 0.2 



Total 255 2,170 2,425 100.0 



Percent 10.6 89.4 



Along the margins of the mature forest an abundant reproduction of balsam 

 is found beneath the old bum type, represented by seedlings and saplings, in many 

 cases at the rate of 1,600 to the acre. 



Some of the semi-barren ridges support considerable oak coppice but, under the 

 present soil conditions, it probably will never become commercial, even though it 

 should escape fire. Many of these ridges have already been burned four times in 

 the past 30 years. On one of these, an acre showed 206 red oak, 60 {)aper birch, 40 

 white oak and 22 red maple saplings. 



As a whole, not more than one-twentieth of the 35,000 acres of burned lands in 

 Anstruther is reproducing the original pine in commercial quantities. 



Burleigh. — Burleigh has 54,750 acres of burned areas — the largest amount within 

 one township in the Trent watershed — and they represent 72 per cent of the land 

 surface of the township. Much of the township has been burned three times, and 

 some of it four time? within the past 30 or 35 years. Like the interior of Anstruther, 

 the interior of Burleigh is much like a desert. The reproduction after the various 

 bums was studied in detail in the region lying between Eels brook and Jack lake. 

 The oldest stand was approximately 30 years since the fire, the poplars being 27 years 



