Canadian Forestry Journal, August, jpi6 



665 



New Brunswick 's Business Plan of 

 Land Classification 



An Interview with Mr. F. C. Nunnick, Agriculturist of 

 Conservation Commission Guiding the Settler 



The wisdom of classifying the 

 lands of a Province and utilizing 

 them according to the plan of Na- 

 ture, would seem self-evident. Only 

 in very recent times, however, have 

 matter serious attention, and even 

 now the idea has not been adopted 

 as an invariable polic}^ The lapses 

 and incongruities are to be seen on 

 every hand, playing false to the pub- 

 lic good, and burdening the state 

 with pitiful and costly problems in 

 present and future. 



New, Brunswick, however, has 

 made an excellent start at surveying 

 the provincial domain, ancl learning 

 the soil possibilities of section by 

 section, as well as compiling a rec- 

 ord of the timber resources. The 

 Government of New Brunswick re- 

 cently received the aid of Mr. F. C. 

 Nunnick.' Agriculturist of the Com- 

 mission of Conservation, for s'everal 

 weeks field Avork. in order to advise 

 the government as to methods of 

 procedure in land classification. 

 Following is an interA^ew with Mr. 

 Nunnick. given to the Forestry 

 Journal : 



Quality of Soils. 



"We visited only a small area in 

 the short time at our disposal. The 

 foresters in connection with the 

 Forest Survey, however, will con- 

 tinue to do what they can in connec- 

 tion with land classification. In 

 order to make a thorough classifica- 

 tion of soils, a soil man should ac- 

 company each party to see for him- 

 self the types and quality of soil and 

 laboratorv tests should be made of 



samples of the various types. Of 

 course, much can be done by the 

 foresters who obtained some infor- 

 mation from us, as they accom- 

 panied us on our trips. We made 

 out a circular of instruction to be 

 given each party regarding the clas- 

 sifying of soils, taking of samples, 

 etc. We began our work at 

 Weaver's, a small station on the I. 

 C. R., not far from Doaktown, and 

 found here a very poor agricultural 

 soil, some of the settlers having been 

 on this land from twenty-five to 

 thirtv vears and onlv having small 

 clearances made in that length of 

 time. These men work in the woods 

 in the winter time and part of the 

 summer and simply use the land to 

 grow a few potatoes and feed for 

 their team and the few cows which 

 they keep. These men stated that 

 the land produces poorly and that 

 the production has decreased since 

 they first began cropping it. The 

 method of farming conducted by 

 these men — that is, with so little live 

 stock — is not conducive to oerma- 

 nent soil fertility. Much of the soil 

 we visited on our various trips is 

 hungry, and if used for agriculture, 

 would need to be fed right from the 

 start, that is. clover crops ploughed 

 down or farm-vard manure should 

 be applied. "\\'e found also that 

 wdiere farming is being done and has 

 been carried on for many years that 

 the crops best suited to the land are 

 not being grown. Much of the soil 

 needs liming, and just here I would 

 like to suggest the advisabilitv of 

 illustration work of this kind being 

 carried on in the new district^ as 



