30 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1915 



of great value and should give the for- 

 esters in Canada much more confidence in 

 advocating the policy of setting apart for- 

 est reserves which has alreadj^ to a con- 

 siderable extent been advocated and 

 adopted. 



Progress Being Made in Setting Apart 

 Forest Reserves. 



Considerable advance has been made in 

 Canada in the setting apart .of forest re- 

 serves. At the present time there are for- 

 est reservations throughout the Dominion 

 as follows: 



Acres. 



Quebec 107,997,51;} 



Ontario 14,4.30,720 



Manitoba 2,606,400 



Saskatchewan 6,195,705.6 



Alberta 16,813,376 



British Columbia (in Eailwav 



Belt) ". 2,417,638.4 



British Columbia (outside 



Eailway Belt) 2,474,240 



making a total of 152,935,593 acres. Be- 

 sides the areas given for British Columbia, 

 all the lands west of the Cascades bearing 

 more than 8,000 feet, board measure, of 

 timber per acre and all lands east of the 

 Cascades bearing over 5,000 feet, board 

 measure, per acre of merchantable timber 

 are removed from entry. 



These areas have been selected with con- 

 siderable care with the object of including 

 in such reservations only lands which con- 

 trol watersheds, or which owing- to the 

 nature of the soil, topography or altitude, 

 are not suitable for agricultural purposes. 

 The determination of what lands are abso- 

 lute forest lands and what are agricultural 

 lands is a matter of great importance, and 

 it is one into which a good many factors 

 enter so that the decision that any land 

 is absolute forest land may have to be 

 altered with conditions of climate, or mar- 

 kets and of agricultural and forest de- 

 velopment. 



Agricultural Conditions. 



In considering the possibilities of the 

 use of land for agricultural purposes it 

 should also be kept in mind that the idea 

 is not as to whether it might or might not 

 be possible to plough up the land and raise 

 some sort of a crop on it or use it for 

 grazing purposes, but whether the condi- 

 tions are such that a family can be sup- 

 ported upon the land in ordinary decency 

 and comfort. If such is not the case the 

 2ilaciug of people on such lands is not only 

 of no benefit to them but is an absolute 

 detriment to the common weal as the re- 

 sult can only be the bringing up of a gen- 

 eration which will be a menace rather 

 than a strength to the state. 



In districts where the climate is suffi- 

 ciently mild to permit of the growth of 

 fi'uit, cultivation may be carried to higher 

 altitudes than in cases where less profit- 

 able crops to the acre can be grown. In 

 France and Switzerland, vineyards are 

 found high up on the sides of the moun- 

 tains on soil that is not of good quality 

 and are making possible a profitable re- 

 turn from the land so as to largely provide 

 for the support of a family on compara- 

 tively small areas. Where grain or root 

 crops must be resorted to, the area of land 

 required for the support of a family would 

 be considerably greater, and where it 

 reaches a point that only the grazing of 

 stock and the growing of green feed is a 

 l)Ossibility the area required for the sup- 

 }iort of a family must be largely increased. 



On the poorer land and in the mountain 

 districts of Europe it has been found pos- 

 sible to greatly extend the area of profit- 

 able settlement by providing an outside 

 source of employment and profit to the 

 agriculturists, and this has been done by 

 covering the poor land with forest and 

 clothing the mountainside with a crop of 

 trees. If we take a typical mountain val- 

 ley in any 'of the forested districts of 

 Europe the matter will be found to work 

 out somewhat as follows: In the lower part 

 of the valley where jjractically any crops 

 may be grown, the farmer can depend on 

 the proceeds of the land he owns or has 

 rented to provide for himself and his fam- 

 ily. Proceeding higher up the valley 

 small fields of grain alternating with pas- 

 ture provide a rather inadequate support 

 for the family, and higher up climatic con- 

 ditions which make the land suitable only 

 for grazing, except possibly only a few 

 acres in the immediate bottom of the val- 

 ley, make it necessary that only the graz- 

 ing of stock, which is generally done on 

 common pasturage, should be carried out 

 while the small area of arable land in the 

 bottom of the valley may supply feed for 

 the stock for the winter and vegetables for 

 the family. 



It is found, however, that, if some pro- 

 fitable work can be provided in the winter 

 for the families living in such valleys, the 

 valleys will be able to support a consider- 

 ably larger population than would be the 

 case if the hill sides were bared and de- 

 voted wholly to grazing or attempts at 

 agriculture. The contrast, from observa- 

 tion, between the forested and deforested 

 valleys in the mountains is so great that 

 a forested valley will support a popula- 

 tion estimated at five times the number 

 in a deforested valley in a mountainous 

 district. It will be seen then that the 

 forest is not opposed to agriculture but is 

 a great assistance to it in places where 

 the agricultural conditions are not the 

 most favorable. 



