518 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, jpi6. 



dustrial activity, to which, at one 

 time, the lumberman gave rise, can 

 be secured. 



Forest and Waterflozv. 



Meanwhile, another important fac- 

 tor in the problem, which is closely 

 connected with the timber question, 

 has been entirely lost sight of, 

 namely, the securing of adequate 

 water supplies for canal and power 

 purposes by the conservation of a 

 forest cover on the watersheds. In- 

 deed, this factor, the conservation of 

 water supplies, is one of paramount 

 importance to the canal. Whatever 

 may be said regarding the influence 

 of deforestation on climate, an in- 

 fluence which, it must be admitted, 

 is only imperfectly understood, 

 there can be no question as to the 

 influence on waterflow which a for- 

 est cover exercises. That such a 

 cover prevents extremes of low- 

 water and high-water stages, and 

 generally regulates and equalizes 

 waterflow. has been proved both by 

 experience and experiment in all 

 parts of the world. 



Engineers have sometimes 

 thought the dams alone may effect 

 the satisfactory regulation of the 

 waterflow, but the wiser ones have 

 recognized that, for the best service, 

 dams need to be supplemented by a 

 forest cover such as a watershed 

 furnishes. Especially for city water 

 supplies the practice of forestation 

 of the watersheds has now been gen- 

 erally recognized as essential, main- 

 ly for the reason that erosion and the 

 filling up of water reservoirs is 

 thereb}- prevented. These explana- 

 tions of the importance of the forest 

 influence may perhaps serve to show 

 the bearing of this survey on the 

 Trent Canal. 



Causes of Deterioration. 



At the present time, the pine tim- 

 ber, at least, is practically gone 

 from this watershed. A forest cover 

 still exists, but, wnth the present 

 commercial value almost entirely 

 extracted, interest in its condition is 



gone ; fires have swept through it 

 repeatedly, each time causing fur- 

 ther deterioration of the forest 

 cover, until, finally, the bare rock 

 condition or man-made desert is the 

 result. At present only beginnings 

 of these conditions can be seen here 

 and there, yet in the three town- 

 ships of Metheun, Anstruther and 

 Burleigh alone, nearly 150,000 acres 

 of such desert jexist. And, if the 

 present policy of indifference and 

 neglect continues, what might have 

 been a continuous source of wealth 

 will become not only a useless 

 waste, but through the changes 

 which the water conditions will un- 

 dergo, may also prove a menace to 

 industries which have been devel- 

 oped to utilize the waterpowers of 

 this watershed. 



Here is a sample area of thousands 

 of square miles in other parts of the 

 Eastern provinces, and the condi- 

 tions in this watershed are by no 

 means extraordinary. They repeat 

 themselves whereever axe and fire 

 have been permitted to destroy the 

 original growth in the Archean rock 

 country, that is to say, wherever 

 lumbering under the license system 

 has been permitted, without safe- 

 guarding the property as a producer. 

 The sequence of this mismanage- 

 ment is everywhere the same. The 

 removal either of the best or of all 

 the timber, without disposing of the 

 debris, leaves a slash which is in- 

 variably subject to fire ; after this, a 

 loss of interest takes place on the 

 part of the licensee and, what is still 

 worse, on the part of the govern- 

 ment. Nature then attempts to re- 

 produce the forest and this is fol- 

 lowed by a repetition of the fires, 

 which kill the seed trees and seed- 

 lings of the better kinds. The 

 ground is then re-covered by aspen 

 and birch for a time; but, through 

 repeated conflagrations, it is finally 

 rendered useless for any productive 

 purpose. A similar sequence takes 

 place in connection with the small- 

 farm portions : at first, through the 

 home market made by the lumber- 



