This item is a photocopy of a typescript of a letter from J.B. McWilliams to Dean B.E. Fernow at the University of Toronto giving a very detailed account of timber licences in the Trent Valley (first licences, abandoned or cancelled licences) and of the amount of lumber taken out in 1872-1873 as opposed to 1912. His concerns were conservation and failing that, reforestation of the area. He also describes the Trent system of forest conservation. The letter is dated December 16, 1912.

Fonds consists of Harley Cummings' research material for Early Days in Haliburton, published in 1963. Included are original wage lists, letters, receipts, accounting records, and agreements of the Ottawa logging company, Bronsons and Weston, with several documents relating to their York Branch operation. Documents relating to business transactions with the Boyd lumbering company of Bobcaygeon, and with individuals along the Peterson Road and Bobcaygeon Road who provided supplies and lodging for the workers comprise a part of the holdings. Mentioned are the Egan Farm in Dungannon Township, Hastings County, and the Bruton Farm on the Peterson Road in Haliburton County. There are references, too, to the operation of cadges between locations (commercial carriers which transported supplies by horses and sleigh/buggy). Also included are copy maps; photographs; notes; handwritten transcriptions of diaries of Alexander Niven and of Mrs. C.R. Stewart; and photographs of Lillian de Grassi Boyd, the Blomfield [Blumfield] family of Lakefield, and the Strickland homestead in Lakefield.

Fonds consists of maps and plans of the Ottawa and Haliburton areas, time-books of Bronsons and Weston logging firm, and photographs of the building of a railway, and of the Haliburton area. Included also are research material and manuscripts relating to books which Harley R. Cummings wrote about schools in the Ottawa area, and on the history of Haliburton. Included are notes on John Strachan and a transcript of his diary. The fonds also includes several genealogical charts of the MacCallum family.