NEW BRUNSWICK FORESTRY CONVENTION 61 



Twenty-six sealers are employed to survey this lumber. There is a 

 c'hief sealer in addition, whose duty it is to oversee the sealers under him, 

 and report to the Department the various operations being carried on and 

 the probable cut of each operator. 



There are restrictions in the licenses as to the cutting of undersized 

 lumber, and no tree is supposed to be cut down that will not make a log 18 

 feet long and 10 inches at the small end. The Government have at various 

 times been strongly pressed to allow undersized logs to be cut for pulpwood, 

 but so far these requests have been met with refusal. 



In some sections where spruce has been found to be of a stunted or 

 slender growth, and would never mature to saw logs, the Government have 

 allowed the lumber to be removed, but the quantity so cut 'has been 

 small. 



In administering the Forests of the Crown, one of the greatest diffi- 

 culties met with is to guard the Department against fraudulent applications 

 for land under the guise of settlement. The tendency in applying for set- 

 tling lands is to secure a lot sufficiently timbered so as to allow the settler 

 something at the start he can turn into money, either by cutting the logs 

 himself or selling his chance to someone else, which is directly contrary to 

 the provisions of the Labor or Settlement Act. The greater number of those 

 applying have no other motive than to cut off the lumber and then allow 

 their applications to lapse. 



The Department is continually holding up applications where reports 

 have shewn the lands are unfit for settlement. The licensees naturally pro- 

 test against such incursion into their limits, and the Surveyor - General is 

 left to adjudicate the matter, often to the displeasure of the settler or the 

 licensee. 







A common practice is to squat upon Crown Lands, without application, 

 clear a small portion, and erect a hut. In time the Department is 

 forced by some settling conditions to approve his application, although, in 

 many cases, the location is made among good timber. 



One can easily see the result. The cleared portion must be burned, 

 and the surrounding forest is at once placed in jeopardy. 



The separation of the purely agricultural lands from the lands only fife 



