370 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, ipi6. 



Settlement and Forest Protection 



n...H..iNear Cochrane ^^^^^^......^^.^^.1.^...^: 



B\ Judith Kingdon in "Saturday Night. 



EDITOR'S NOTE. — The attention of readers of the Journal is called to the follow- 

 ing article in Toronto Saturday Night. According to the author of it the general con- 

 ditions of Northern Ontario in the neighborhood of Cochrane form an incentive to 

 deliberate forest destruction. 



As something very worthy their 

 attention, I should like to see the 

 Government of Ontario make a 

 thorough and exhaustive enquiry 

 into the waste of human energy and 

 hope, and their possible conserva- 

 tion, in the settlement of the nor- 

 thern part of their province. 



it should be made possible for the 

 first man who takes up a lot to stay 

 with it and succeed. As things are 

 now, a large percentage of those who 

 take up lots, after one year or two 

 years, or three years, decide they 

 cannot make it go, so they leave. 

 Should the settler be given his lot 

 with a few acres cleared, stumped 

 and ploughed, giving him a better 

 chance to stay on his lot? The 

 charges against this improvement 

 could be made payable at some fu- 

 ture date when the farm was a going 

 concern. 



It is true a great deal of road work 

 has been given the settlers, but when 

 they are doing this work is the time 

 they should be logging up and 

 stumping on their lots. They can- 

 not stump in the winter. Many set- 

 tlers have left since the road work 

 stopped. 



Nor can the average settler make 

 a living out of his timber. The gov- 

 ernment tells him he can sell every 

 stick on his lot. This is really true. 

 He can — but not at a profit, often at 

 some cost. A man I know has just 

 sold some pulp-wood. On every 

 cord he sells he loses nearly a dollar. 



But since he has it cut, he must do 

 that or suffer a total loss. He is not 

 going to cut any more pulp-wood. 

 It is the same with fire-wood and 

 saw-logs. Only those near a station, 

 siding, or mill can make even wages. 

 The haul kills it. Moreover, the set- 

 lers are scattered, and one team can 

 keep the road open only with the 

 greatest difficulty, on account of the 

 depth of snow and its sand-like 

 quality. He usually cannot draw a 

 full load. 



Timber of a size suitable for saw- 

 logs is mostly scattered, making the 

 cutting and skidding too expensive. 

 If much small stuff be cut, again the 

 haul kills any profit on account of 

 the extra number of slabs. If he 

 live far out, he cannot give away his 

 timber on the stump. 



When the settler has "burned 

 his fingers" this way, or watch- 

 ed his neighbor go in the hole, 

 he begins to think favorably of 

 fire. If he can fire his bush 

 standing, he is inclined to do so. 

 Then the stumps are rotting and 

 the dead trees keep constantly 

 blowing down. After that he 

 tries to coax- the fire through 

 each summer, burning much of 

 the fallen stuff and weakening 

 the stumps. Incidentally he 

 burns off all his black muck, so 

 he may later have to persuade a 

 crop of clover to grow to be 

 turned in. He also quite fre- 

 quently burns out several of his 

 neighbors or himself. 



