CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 67 



green growing timber. Now the natural question, not only for the whole 

 country, but especially for this Forestry Asoociation, is, what can we do to 

 utilize those bogs? My work last summer, beginning in Ontario and extend- 

 ing through Manitoba and Saskatchewan, was to examine many of the larger 

 bogs to see what they are worth for fuel purposes; that is, to ascertain their 

 depth, the quality of the peat, and especially the possibilities of draining 

 them. While I was working on that special question I naturally learned what 

 I could, from the point of view of the forester. Speaking from this point of 

 view, I think our Canadian bogs are of three kinds. (1) The bogs that can- 

 not be drained. When I say bogs that cannot be drained of course we can 

 drain anything; it is a mere matter of money I mean bogs that from their 

 situation, being in basins and that sort of thing, cannot profitably be drained. 

 There are many of these bogs in Canada, and perhaps we cannot consider 

 them at all from the forestry point of view. (2) There are the bogs that can 

 be completely drained without very great expense. I am entirely ignoring 

 the question of the utilization of the bogs for fuel. A bog that can be com- 

 pletely drained will eventually be used to a very great extent for agricul- 

 tural purposes. (3) As far, however, as my experience goes, and that of 

 those with whom I have talked, a great proportion of our bogs in Canada 

 are of the kind that can be only partially drained. That is, it would be 

 difficult to drain them completely, and yet some surface water can be taken 

 off. When water leaves a bog it goes for good. That is, if you can lower 

 the average height of the water in a bog one foot, even if it goes up to a 

 higher level in the spring, still the average level will b permanently low- 

 ered. A somewhat trifling incident drew my attention to this matter whilst 

 I was working on the Canadian Northern Railway, between Hudson Bay 

 Junction and The Pas Mission. On the right of way between the rails and 

 where the fences will ultimately be, the bog has been sufficiently drained to 

 allow of a growth of aspen poplar along the whole length of the line, which 

 for 89 miles runs through bog and swamp land. The bog itself is covered 

 with spruce and tamarac, but I found young aspen poplar from one to two 

 years old along practically the whole line, thus showing the effect of a 

 little drainage. A year later, whilst working along the muskeg near Winni- 

 peg the largest muskeg in Canada I found not only well grown poplars 

 on either side of the track, but that the spruce and tamarac which had 

 been growing on the bog for a great many years was very much larger where 

 the land had been partially drained than it was fifty or one hundred yards 

 away. The inference is that if we partially drain a bog, without reforesting 

 at all, the young spruce and tamarac already on it will have a much bet' 

 ter chance to grow. Now, I think, we have many millions of acres of such 

 bogs in Canada, especially in Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba. I am 

 sorry there is not a special paper on this subject, or perhaps a special hou? 

 at our meeting for its discussion, because I think it is one to which Doctor 

 Fernow has given special attention, and we have never discussed it here. 

 At least it solves the problem of reforesting certain parts of Canada in so far 

 as it can be solved with any advantage to those who spend the money. We 



