68 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



40 miles of telephone lines ; materials and installation $2,400 



Building towers and shelters for look-out keepers 1,200 



12 field glasses for look-out keepers 300 



Salaries of 12 look-out keepers ; 5 months at $60 per month 3,600 



Salary of an inspector 1,800 



Annual cost of fighting fires and incidentals 700 



Total $10,000 



On the 7S,ooo acres referred to on page 63 some of the poplar is 

 already near merchantable size. Cuttings should be made in this 

 for pulp wood within ten years. On the greater portion of the area, 

 however, the poplar will not be ready for cutting before 25 years. 

 Assuming it would be 2 5 years before the cuttings could be on sufficiently 

 large scale to pay oflE the debt of previous fire protection, the sums 

 given above at 4 per cent compound interest for 2 5 years would attain 

 the following values : 



$3,900 initial cost, 25 years at 4 per cent $ 10,396 . 60 



$5,400, salaries annually, 25 years at 4 per cent. . . . 224,887 . 85 

 $700, fire-fighting, annually, 25 years at 4 per cent. 29,152.15 



Total $264,436.60 



By spending approximately a quarter million dollars distributed 

 over a period of 25 years the Government woidd have at the end of the 

 period poplar alone worth $4,200,000 : in addition to this, pine at 

 maturity worth $4,115,800 in dues and stumpage, at the present rates. 

 It would be a very profitable transaction even at the present prices. 

 From the facts stated in the previous pages, namely, that the average 

 rate of 14,000 acres burned yearly in the past 40 years is still being main- 

 tained, and that the cut-over lands are now without fire protection, 

 it is reasonably certain that the 560,000 acres under consideration will be 

 without commercially valuable timber at the end of the next 2 5 -year 

 period unless an adequate system of fire protection is installed. No 

 Government can afford to allow this amount of forest land to remain 

 continuously tuiproductive. 



III. A Brief Description of Conditions by Townships 



Hastings County 



Marmora Township 



Watersheds. — About 70 square miles in Marmora township drain 

 into the Trent canal by the way of Beaver creek and its tributaries. 

 The remaining portion of the township is drained by Moira river. 

 The portion of Crow lake lying in Marmora has a surface area of nearly 

 2,000 acres. The only lakes lying entirely within the township are the 

 Twin Sisters, and they have hardly 200 acres of surface. 



Topography. — The portion of Marmora drained by Beaver creek 

 is a series of broad, flat plateaus and ridges, which increase in ruggedness 



