36 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



I will now put before you a scheme devised by my father to compel the habi- 

 tant to preserve as "perpetual bush lot" a certain portion of his property. This 

 scheme has been in operation for over thirty years and has proved a success. If suc- 

 cess has attended the efforts _of a private individual, I can see no reason why our 

 Provincial Government, if it is willing to adopt the scheme and honestly and con- 

 scientiously carry it out, should not obtain a measure of success at least equal to 

 that which we have attained. 



Within the last thirty years, my father has made many sales of timber lands 

 on his Seigniory of Lotbiniere. These sales have been of a twofold nature. Some 

 lands have been sold as "terre a bois," small bush lots of from fifteen to twenty 

 acres each, to provide fuel and construction material to the purchaser; others 

 have been sold as agricultural lands, but with a bush lot reserve. 



I will now draw your attention to the clauses in these deeds referring to the 

 protection of the timber. **i 



The following clause is found in the deed of sale of all timber lands, sold simply 

 to supply the purchaser and his descendants with fuel and building material: 

 "It is moreover agreed between the parties to the present deed, that the said lot is 

 "sold upon the express condition, that no portion of the same shall be cultivated, 

 " that no wood or branches shall be burnt thereupon, that the lot will be preserved 

 "as a 'wood lot' by the purchaser, his heirs and assigns, and that no wood from 

 "the said lot shall be sold, under penalty of paying to the seller, his heirs and assigns, 

 "the sum of $100.00." 



Where a lot was sold for the purpose of settlement, a timber reserve was always 

 stipulated in the following terms: "Permission is given to open and cultivate 

 "the said lot up to such and such a limit, (and then comes^the restriction) that the 

 "remainder of the said lot shall not be cultivated, that no wood or branches shall 

 "be burnt upon it, that the said portion of said lot shall be preserved as a ' wood lot' 

 "by the purchasers, his heirs and assigns for their own use, and that no wood will 

 "be sold from the said reserve under penalty of $100.00." 



In both cases the deeds further say, that the clauses I have cited are not only 

 for the protection of the seller from fire that might spread to his adjacent lands, 

 but to protect the purchasers also from the same danger. Allusion is also made 

 to the fact (and that thirty years ago), that the sale in a case of a " bush lot " is made 

 to furnish the purchaser with fuel and building material that he can no longer 

 find anywhere in the vicinity of his home. 



In the case of lands to be settled, the forest reserve or "bush lot" was invar- 

 iably made at one end of the lot or the other, so that all the bush lots should be 

 contiguous. The purchaser was not allowed to select his timber reserve. Had 

 he been permitted to do so, he would invariably have chosen as his bush lot the 

 worst part of his land and that containing the least timber. 



As I said before, this scheme of my father's, which has now had over thirty years' 

 trial, has proved a success. Thelands sold as purely "wood lots" are to-day cover- 

 ed with a dense growth of timber, and on the lands which were sold for settlement, 

 the reserve has been almost invariably respected and the terms of the deed adhered 

 to. 



On a 100 acre lot, a reserve of say twenty acres, with the restrictions I have men- 

 tioned, as "perpetual forest reserve," would be amply sufficient to supply the 

 purchaser and his representatives with an inexhaustible supply of fuel and building 

 material, and not only that, but every new township instead of shortly becoming 

 the treeless, parched desert our old settlements now are, would be covered with an 

 ample supply of timber. 



