122 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



there is a great deal of land used as pasture land, particularly round 

 the lakes, and I do not know whether you would call this agricultural 

 land or not. Kindly advise me on this point. In regard to establish- 

 ing permanent forest reserves, I certainly think it would be advisable 

 to have as much of the rough land growing timber as possible, but would 

 like to know how you propose to acquire this land, in how large blocks, 

 and what kind of timber, etc. 



There are settlers living on land in Harvey who are not able to 

 live on the land alone, but have to help make a living in some other way. 

 Such land wotdd certainly be better growing timber than anything else. 

 A great deal of this pasture land I spoke of is merely slash land or, at 

 best, is land that was settled on and, as long as the timber lasted, the 

 settler made a living and perhaps grew a crop of wheat and one or two 

 of hay, but, as it could not be cultivated, it soon became fit for nothing 

 but pasture and the occupant was forced to go somewhere else. Then 

 some farmer in Harvey or elsewhere bought the land and used it as a 

 cattle pasture. 



MiNDEN Township, Victoria County 



Yours re non-agricultural lands in this district to hand. In reply 

 will say that a fair estimate of such land in my township would be from 

 sixteen to eighteen square miles. When I make this estimate, I mean 

 lands that are almost altogether useless for agriculture. While the 

 greater portion of the township is settled and the majority of the lots 

 are cleared, there are portions of nearly every lot of very little value for 

 agriculture. If it could be made workable, I think the establishment 

 of forest reserves a good scheme. 



Township of Somerville, Victoria County 



In reply to your favour of the 17th, I do not know that I can give 

 you a very satisfactory reply. You ask me for an approximate estimate 

 of the non-agricultural lands of the township. I shoiild say that there 

 are about sixteen^thousand acres in this township unfit for agrictiltural 

 purposes, some being portions of lots, the remainder of which are fairly 

 good. Most of this poor land is fenced and is used for cattle runs 

 (pasture). As to establishing forest reserves I am not in a position to 

 give an opinion. Some of the poor land is in blocks of from one to two 

 thousand acres, but a great deal of it is mixed between patches of fair 

 to good land. 



I have thought, when I see people (as some are doing) cutting young 

 timber and selHng it as cordwood, that it is a pity such practices cotild 

 not be prevented, especially when it is young pine. I think, where a 

 man has made a purchase of a government lot and paid one or two small 

 payments, the sale should be cancelled if the land is growing up to young 

 timber, especially if it is pine timber, even if the money he had paid 

 were refimded to him. It might be all right to sell this waste land if 

 it were sold imder restrictions as to cutting young timber and the pre- 

 vention of fires. 



For Addington County, see Lennox and Addington. 



For Darham County, see Northumberland and Durham. 



