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point about five miles east of Kingston. To the north-east of all this line is a vast mass 

 of forest, pierced in many points by colonization roads, and interspersed with clearings 

 along its southern edge. To this district we may add the Muskoka and the Parry Sound 

 regions, which are, in many respects, similar. In these three are situated great pine 

 districts, many of which have been cut over by the lumberman, while much is yet 

 untouched and in the hands of Government. It is, it appears to me, a matter of great 

 importance to preserve many of the pine forests in these vicinities, and that for these 

 reasons : — 



1. They are the true pine reserves of the older districts of Ontario. 



2. The land whereon they stand can never yield, for purposes of agriculture, any- 

 thing like the return it is capable of producing if maintained in continual pine-bearing 

 forest. 



3. If proper care be taken these great districts can, by the adoption of European 

 methods, be placed in a state of continua,! reproduction, which will allow, every year, 

 a very large amount of valuable pine to be cut without clearing the land or in any way 

 injuring the forest capacity for production. 



4. It would be far better to commence the preservation of forest areas along the 

 present existing line of clearing than to commence similar operations much farther back. 

 If, as is stated, the land is much better' farther to the north, it would be better to renew 

 the clearing there, so as to leave a broad belt of forest to the south of the new settle- 

 ments; for a forest district to the south (without prejudice to the height of lands 

 considerations) will attract summer showers to the cleared land north of it, while from a 

 north forest comes little rain at the season when most needed. 



Peotection from Fire. 



The great difficulty in maintaining forests in this country lies in protecting them 

 from the ravages of fire, to which they are peculiarly subject. Our hot summers dry the 

 edee of the forest, the cuttings left by the lumberman greatly increase the danger, the 

 cattle of the settler dry and impoverish the forest edge for many miles, a dry season 

 comes, fire is ignited by the clearing fires of the settler, by those of the lumberman or the 

 hunter, or it may be at some point where the railway has touched the forest line, by a 

 spark from a locomotive. There are two seasons when fires are likely to run — -the first 

 is during the hot months of summer, the second late in a dry fall, when the fire runs on 

 the thick carpet of dry leaves. This last I think the more rapid of the two. I have 

 seen it come miles abreast through the forest with the speed of a fast walker, firing 

 every inflammable substance in its way. The terrible devastation caused by these fires 

 when under full headway is ruinous beyond imagination. Hundreds and thousands of 

 square miles of beautiful forest have been reduced to ashes in periods of a fortnight or 

 even of a week. It has been well remarked by persons fully competent to express an 

 opinion on the matter, that the fire destroys more timber in Canada than the axe-. If, 

 then, some means could be devised to check this devastation, the result would, no doubt, 

 be extremely beneficial to the country. 



The recommendation I have to make, with respect to these forests, is one based 

 partly on the character of the soil, partly on the practice existing in India and in Europe, 



