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it should be needed throughout the year. Any one who has read the valuable records, 

 examples, and statements, collated and compiled in the preceding part of this volume, will 

 need no further evidence, and will well understand, on being shown the heights of land 

 and watersheds, what should be done with them. It is extremely desirable that they be, 

 where possible, maintained in a forest state, the manner of doing which has been previ- 

 ously explained ; and that, where disforested, they be, in preference to any other land, 

 the scene of foresting operations. 



It should also be pointed out that it has been found in every cDuntry where forestry 

 is practised, expedient to set in operation several nurseries for the purpose of raising the 

 seedling trees adapted for planting, of such varieties as are most suitable. These should 

 be selected, not necessarily in any of the localities described as heights of land, but as a 

 small portion of land would be sufficient, in any part of the country, where the soil and 

 situation were considered most favourable for the young plants, considered with regard to 

 their future destination. This can be well learned by consultation with those who have 

 made such experiments, of which some are reported in these pages. It may be remarked 

 that, although it is recommended by some experimenters to rely on the forest for seed- 

 lings, yet in other countries, where equal or greater facilities exist in that respect, nur- 

 series are always found necessary, and would, for various reasons, probably be so here. 



It would appear that, in planting or preserving these heights of land, the trees 

 chosen should be largely of the pine variety. In the first place, their height is of great 

 additional service. 2nd. They are evergreen, and preserve deep forest shade and shelter 

 in summer and winter, spring and fall. 3rd. The soil of these localities is likely to 

 resemble that found suitable to these trees in other lands. 4th. They may be relied 

 upon for a paying return, year after year, if preserved with care, as this is the most 

 valuable tree for commercial purposes. 5th. They will, many authorities say, grow to 

 size fit to cut much sooner than the hardwoods of equal value. 6th. They can be, it 

 appears, very successfully interspersed with the hardwoods, especially the beech, which 

 would add to the plantation all the advantages of a deciduous forest. 



THE GREAT FOREST TO THE NORTH-EAST. 



As mentioned in the first part of this book, there is a great and" largely untouched 

 forest to the north-east of the Province of Ontario. The reason why this mass of forest 

 has not been ere this more deeply penetrated by the settler is, that the land is not 

 nearly so good for agricultural purposes as that in the older settled districts of the 

 Province. 



In one word, it is the Laurfntian formation, an outcrop of the backbone of the 

 world, and that backbone, unlike other bones, contains no lime ; it is a granite formation, 

 and, though there are in parts of it opportunities for obtaining lime from the gneiss rock, 

 yet, do what you will with it, this district will never equal in an agricultural capacity 

 (cceteris paribus) that based on a limestone formation. The detritus of granite is not, 

 and in the nature of things cannot be, for agricultural purposes, in any respect the equal 

 of the detritus of limestone. This great region is reached from Toronto at a point near 

 Gravenhurst, and its border would be marked by a curved line from Gravenhurst to a 



