Mr. SPEAKMAN:

Just what are the functions of these forest experiment stations? Are they purely experimental or do they include a certain amount of distribution?

Mr. SPEAKMAN:

Has the department

any experience in the attempt to grow trees in drought areas? There is a great deal of

Supply-Interior

discussion about that at the present time both here and in the United States, and naturally many of us are very much interested I am asking this because of what I have been observing in the drier areas, and because there is some doubt in my mind as to the possibility of growing trees where drought conditions have become bad. I have seen a good many shelter belts and plantations where trees which had been growing for some twenty years and had become well rooted have died out because of the drought. In view of this I was wondering whether experiments have been carried on in attempting to grow trees as part of the battle against drought, and if so what the results have been. Possibly the experience has been so limited that the department has not been able to form any definite conclusions, but it is a topic of much interest in parts of western Canada.

Mr. SPEAKMAN:

Under the forestry

item I notice there is a slight increase in the expenditure contemplated. May I ask if the department contemplates extending the policy of forest experiment and demonstration stations, establishing new stations or extending their activities? I ask this particularly in view of discussions that have been carried on in connection with the drought problem and the possibility of helping to cope with that problem through forestation.

Mr. SPEARMAN:

I was dealing with this question. Until the proposal has been accepted and filed in the courts the applicant, the man making the proposal, does not come specifically under this law, or does he? He has not voided the protection he already has under the provincial law until the proposal has been confirmed by the court?

Mr. SPEARMAN:

Yes, but I was referring to the other point, that apart from anything in this act providing for a stay of proceedings in some provinces the debtors

Farmers' Creditors Act

are now under the protection of provincial legislation under which proceedings can take place only by permission of certain courts or tribunals. As I understand it the protection of that provincial legislation is not voided by the debtor until the proposal has been agreed to, confirmed and filed in the courts as a completed proposal. Is that a fact?