IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 1.25 UA IM 112.2 2.0 us 1 4,0 iiil M^liig Hiotographic SnifincfiS C^rpoMbn 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. I4SE0 (716) 872-4$03 1 j^ II r I ¥-g AND OB, FORESIRY AND FARMWa IN ONTARIO. BY T. B. "\^SCITB3. i^oxoE 10 casim. HUNTER, ROSE ^ CO.. WEtLINaTON STREET WEST 1886. xi^mtefmMkmui I I ^ .' 4.'a1 ,U*#a--' V ■-.'^ kB ''-*-*«^"' I I,?- ain't ?-r-'r e7i^ifi» BfVi»«;^ti.i?>n ARBORICULTURE AVD AGRICULTURE ; OE, Jfcrtstrg anil Jfarming in ©ntaric. BY T. B. ^VHITE. HUNTER, ROSE & CO., WELLINGTON STREET WEST, 1886. 4 AEBOEICULTURE AND AGKICULTURE.' The subject of this paper is " Arboriculture and Agriculture, or Forestry and Farming in Ontario," and the quotations given are mostly from books published since 1880, on these questions, by the Ontario Government, namely : The Agricultural Commis- sioners' Evidences and Report ; Agricultural and Arts Association, and Agricultural College Reports ; Forestry Reports by R. W. Phipps, Toronto ; and Report of Delegation to American Forestry Congress. And in preparing this paper I have thought it best to divide it into four heads: 1st, Forestry and Rainfall; 2nd, For- estry and Drainage ; 3rd, Forestry and Crops ; 4th, Forestry for Protection and Ornament ; winding up with some general state- ments, keeping the " text," which underlies the whole subject, until the last. 1st. Forestry and Rainfatx. I am of the opinion that forests, more or less, in this part of Ontario — between the lakes, I mean — have not a noticeable effect on the rainfall,and I have been acquainted with some portions of it from a dense forest to ninety per cent, cleared, extending over forty years. Of over fifty answers to this question in Forestry Re- port for 1884, two or three say the rainfall is less since the forests have been cleared. The others all tell about the same thing as follows : " Though it may not be less on the whole, it does not seem to come as gentle and as often." But the way they harp on the known fact that creeks and rivers are more irregular, and small streams dry up where they used to run the summer through, it would seem that this had more to do with the conclusions come to than the actual facts of the case. Mr. Henry Doupe of Kirton, speaks clear on this point : " I must say there has been a drying up of the craeks since the forests have been cleared away — that is, the water goes away earlier in the spring, and is less in the creeks in the summer than formerly. When rain falls it gets away more quickly, which may be accounted for by open or under drains leading to creeks or small streams, and also from the effects of wind and sun on cleared land. As to the quantity of rain, I would say that I think it very little less than formerly. During the past summer, more rain fell here than in any season for the last thirty or forty years. When rain falls with thunder, I think, * This paper, revised, was prepared for and read at a meeting of the Centre Grey Farmers' iDstitute, held at Thombury, February 24, 1836. Jime 18, 1886. T. B. Whitb, Clarksburg. :.r •J for the time it lasts, that it falls more; heavily than formerly. The land is mostly cleared." Mr. Phipps says : " Of all the local causes which tend to pro- duce rain, forests are by far the most beneficial to the cultivator, for the great but invisible columns of cold and moist air which arise from them are sent upwards when rain is most beneficial to the farmer, etc." ^ , . , , Mr. P. E. Bucke says : " The evaporation from their leaves by cooling the atmosphere, has the effect of increasing the frequency of showers " , , , . - n . A. Eby, M. P., says : " It is not proved that the total rainfall of a country is lessened by denuding it of its forest? ; but in a well- wooded country there is a more general distribution of moisture throughout the year." Mr. Mowat, better known as Moses Gates, says ; " That from 1841 till 1871, the rainfall in the second or third quarters of the year decreased ; but during the last six or seven years, he thinks, the rainfall has been increasing. The causes of this increase are probably not due to anything peculiar to this province, but have their origin outside of the earth." Mr. Mowat gives himself plenty of room. , 1 . Now, the theory adduced to prove that trees have such a grea influence in producing the rainfall is something like this, and which, if there is much truth in it, the farmer should study; 1st. Trees are composed of organic and inorganic substances ; and to build up these elements into a tree water is the great promoter of the process ; but by the time its mission is fulfilled it is at the top of the tree, and passes, by the process of evaporation, through the leaves, cooling the atmosphere. 2nd. The cooler the atmosphere the less moisture it will hold without precipitation. To illustrate : Supposing a current of air, or cloud, if you like, is passing along, having a temperature of seventy degrees, holding eight grains of moisture per cubic foot, but in passing over a cleared, parched country, the refraction from below increases that temperature, so that in place of raining it takes in more moisture, leaving the farmers' crops drier and drier ; but, when it comes over a forest, the cooling process going on there reduces its temperature, say to fifty degrees, and the result is it rains. Applying this theory to the City of Toronto, and considering the material the buildings and streets are made of, and the sewers to swallow down the moisture as fast as it comes, thereby leaving but little for evapo- ration, should not the refraction from such a place, if it made any difference, have a tendency to give less rain than the rest of Ontario ? But Mr. Monk says : " The average in Toronto has been for eight years or more, eight inches more than the average of the rest of the province. And the number of days on which rain fell was 110 to 91 to the rest of the province. From the same authority we learn the amount of rainfall in Ontario for twentv-six yeare, from 1846 to 1871 inclusive. And, placing this rainfall alongside the amount of woods cut down during the same twenty-six years, we have the lowest, 26.805 inches in 1848, and the highest, 46.188 inches in 1870. And, putting the first four years given beside the last four years, it shows four inches more rain in favor of the latter. Professor Brown says : '• The well-watered north shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario, as far as Toronto, is clearly large lake influence." But he " cannot see how all north of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River there is only a moderate rainfall, considering the size of the lake and the large proportion of heavily timbered country adjoining. And why the one should be so clear, And the other be so obsoire, Is what I cannot see ; But did ive climb where Oates's did. It might be better understood, And solve the mystery. Mr. McQuade, in his Essay on Forestiy, makes a calculation from an experiment made niaety-seven years ago, and shows that an acre of wood land will yield 3,875 gallons of water in twelve hours ; and gives it as his opinion, that if this process of calcula- tion was carried out correctly in Ontario, it would be an easy matter to determine what amount of leaf-surface would be re- quired to insure a full crop under ordinary circumstances. Professor Brown, on this question, says: " This is just one of the things that we do not know, and that we are not likely ever to know, as a point for general practical guidance." And there are several things, I think, which point very conclu- sively to the correctness of the professor's statement, though, of all that I have heard or read on forestry, Mr. McQuade, I think, in his '* Essay on Forestry," carries off the palm. Hear him : " In those days of universal tillage, the grass will bum off the earth, the cattle perish for want of water, and why 1 Because we have not the everlasting snow-capped mountains hanging over us to feed our creeks and springs ; because we have destroyed our ferest-trees which Nature's Great Architect planted for that pur- pose. Do our people know all this ? will they believe it when told ? Oh that some mighty genius, with the tongue of Demos- thenes, eloquence of Cicero, and pen of Homer, would proclaim it in every hamlet throughout the length and Jareadth of our fine young province, before it is too late. Twenty years ago the lover of sport could catch trout, bass, chub and suckers, at any time in summer, from Bayfield to Dublin, or shoot the grey or wood chuck. To-day there is not sufficient water in its whole length to keep a decent family in drink." This seems rather small fry to make such a lamentation about. No wonder at the poor Indian feeling 80 cast down and despond- ent over the loss of his buffalo. 2nd. Forestry and Drainage. Mr. Phipps, after treating us to a philosophical lesson on the care of a flower-pot, says : " Let us compare this with the fields. While the forests remain in due amount, diminitive underground water-courses run every where beneath them. If you have ever dug a railroad cutting through a field, you will find undei the wood many a spring. Under the field, unless you dig deeply, you will find but very few. The country, partially cleared, may be, I should say, likened to the occasienally watered and well- tended flower-pot. The fertilizing showers of spring and sum- mer will, from the proximity of the trees, be frequent and nour- ishing. The overplus will at once be carried away by the under- ground channels, still for that purpose existing sufficiently near the surface ; vegetation will flourish, and the fields yield a gener- ous return. As with the -veil-tended flower-pot, the regular succession of moisture and heat has been bestowed. But when a country is almost deforested, the original underground channels must of necessity largely close," etc., etc. However nice the forest plan of under-draining may look spread out on paper, it does not appear to have been very suc- cessful when the trees had possession of the land. Mr. Elliott, of Colchester Township, Essex County, says: "We have about 8,000 acres of marshy land that has been reclaimed in our township by open drains. It was absolutely worthless before it was drained, except that in the middle of summer the cattle «ould run upon it for a short time. We have two drains, twenty feet wide, and three and a half feet deep on the average. Some liave grown wheat on these reclaimed lands, which have evidently been timbered lands some time in the past, as the old stumps and timber can be found in the bottom." The late Professor Buckland says : " I remember, in clearing up the old University Park in Toronto, where the soil in many places was very wet, we had a number of drains made, and the ground afterwards sown with grass seed ; and wherever these drains were put, through dry as well as wet ground, the earth having been moved and the moisture getting in when the grass-seed was sown, little belts of green might afterwards be seen all through the driest summers f^r many years, indicating that we need not fear over-draining, so far as bringing the land into a good state, for the sustentation of crops, is concerned." Mr. McLain, of Gosfield Township, says : "Some portions of our township have been reclaimed by drains. We have had a lot of bush land reclaimed. The wet land was generally kept in bush before it was drained — the driest land being selected for farming." \ 6 Mr. Cheekly, North Augusta, says : " With regard to clearing up the country, affecting the rainfall and drying up the streams, it is doing both. I remember distinctly, where mowers and reapers are now used, seeing water stand all summer, when the land was in a state of nature ; and the stream that runs through the village where I live, shows signs of the supply being cut off, which it received in former years from the great swamps along its course that are now cleared up and under crop." This seems a rather strange statement to make to show that the country is being ruined by being cleared up, and harvesting where water used to stand the summer through. t Mr. Woods, farm foreman at the College Farm, Guelph, says : "Field 12 will never be in a state of cultivation until well drained, as it is very low. There is an absolute necessity for having this field well drained. Nos. 17 aud 18 also require drain- ing. I hope and trust the government will place a sufficient sum to the credit of the drainage fund to enable us to drain these three gelds." But then Mr. Wood, in the same report, speakmg of the new- windmill, says : " The arrangement which regulates the supply is an ingenious piece of mechanism. When an animal commences drinking at one of the troughs, the machinery is again in opera- tion, and continues so until there is no more water required. Thus at all times there is a plentiful supply of water on this part of the farm." Mr. Wood's cry is more drainage and more windmills. Mr. Cheekly 's cry is more trees and more wet land. This is farming and forestry. Mr. Smellie, of Vaughan, gives his experience on both sides of the question; and as his is a pretty old farm— I was at a plough- ing match on it forty years past — it would be well for most of us to take a note of it. He says : " The country is getting more cleared of timber, and that is another thing to account for the diminution in the crops. The more bush and shelter, the greatei- the crops of wheat, etc." Then, on under-draining, he says : " Un- der-draining has favorably affected the produce of my wheat. The cause of wheat being winter-killed is the fact of its having a cold, damp bottom." If this is so, remove the cause, and the shelter is not needed. Putting a dozen coats on does not cure the ague. Mr. T. H. Monk, after stating what is pretty well understood to be the cause of rust, says : " If this be so, it shows the necessity for drainage." Mr. Gibson, of Markham, says : " When, in 1847, 1 first went upon my farm, it was a rather peculiar one. It was wet but not spongy, but quit« unsuitable for raising fall wheat. But, after I had drained my farm, I had almost always good crops of fall wheat durinsr the time the midge was at the worst." Mr. Drury says : " Excessive moisture is not so bad for drained as undrained land, and that drv weather does not affect so bad." Mr. Thomson, of Brooklin, who has spent some $3,000 on under- draining, says : "Before I drained, it depended entirely on the season whether I had any crop at all or not, and now a great crop is a matter of certainty." The Directors of the Agricultural Society of West York say : " If we drain, the action of the air and frost will deepen the soil, and fall wheat and clover will not be so apt to kill out." Thus we might go on ad infinitum, and show that a great deal^ of the failing of our crops, which we attrl ite to the want oi shelter, is more for the want of drainage, and not such drainage as an increase of forests would give us either. 3rd. Forestry and Crops. We shall run this head dn the line of showing that our crops are not as much worse now as formerly, as we are apt to think they are; and when they are worse, it is often more attributable to bad farming than for the want of forests to shelter them. Mr. Riddell. of Cobourg, gives a tabulated statement showing the nverage of his grain crops for thirty-nine years, from 18 tl. and the good and poor vields are so intermixed from beginning to end, so that if we attribute the poor crops of some years to the want of shelter, it is evident that this shelter did not cause good crops other years. In 1841, spring wheat 15 bushels; 1851. ^7 bushels; 1861. 18J bus i els. In 1842, fall wheat 12 bushels; 1852, 29 bushels; 1867, 24 bushels; 1877,25 bushels; and in 1878, 12 bushels per acre. Professor Brown says: "I have adopted a rotation of crops, which I think is applicable to the whole province ; and, although I have not been very successful in raising fall wheat, by reason ot our high elevation and great exposure to the atmosphere, in spring wheat, which does not require the same amount ot pro- tection, my success has been very marked." AlthoP