CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 49 



asks that the laws be properly administered; that the regulations regarding settlers 

 and the diameter limit of trees to be cut should be rigidly enforced. 



This question of dealing with the settlers has become a crucial one with the 

 lumbermen. The settlers take up territory, not because they need it to make a 

 home for themselves, or because they require the land-, but because the land they 

 want has lots of good timber for which they can find a ready market. I saw 

 an instance recently where a man owning 500 acres of land, a good house and barns, 

 and occupying a very comfortable position, went and took up land under the 

 settlers' provisions belonging to a lumber company. He did this in February. 

 The law only gives the lumber company until May to take off the timber. He 

 had no need of the land at all, and there was no reason why his location ticket 

 should not be held back to allow the company to get their timber held back. But 

 it was quite evident that he wanted to get the land merely for the timber on it, and 

 under the law he was able to do so, thus practically robbing the company, because 

 in so short a time it was impossible for them to remove the timber before he came 

 into possession. 



Another case recently came to my attention of a company which wanted some 

 timber. They secured from the Government six Jots, and paid $600 for them, 

 and this land which they took up was of course part of a timber limit. 

 The following week they offered the timber on them to the same company 

 from whom the limits had been taken for $2,700. That is the sort of thing which 

 makes it difficult for the lumberman to do anything along forestry lines. His 

 timber is taken from him by speculators calling themselves settlers, and then he 

 has to buy it back from them at greatly advanced prices. If the lumberman could 

 be convinced that the settler was bona fide there would be no complaints. But 

 when the Government gives with one hand and takes back with the other, it is hard 

 to expect the lumber company to spend money on forestry work and then have 

 the land taken away, and the benefit of their investment and work given to some- 

 body else. , 



It seems to me that if the Government would have the land examined, and 

 find what was fit for settlement and then give the companies reasonable notice, so 

 as to give them a chance to cut the good timber, that there would be no objection at 

 all. We have found that wherever the timber was cut on the lots, the settlers 

 immediately lost interest in the section and gave up the idea of settling or engaging 

 in farming upon the land. 



Another difficulty experienced in this province is that we have no reliable 

 maps, except those of the water courses, which have been very roughly made. We 

 have no detailed maps at all. And therefore when working in this country we 

 have found it necessary to make our own. I myself have accurately mapped in the 

 neighborhood of 500 square miles during the past few years, and the conditions 



