NEWS AND NOTES 



Canadian Forest Products 



The output of sawn lumber in Canada, 

 according to a report Just issued by the 

 torestry branch of the Department of the 

 Interior, was 3,348,176,000 feet in 1908 and 

 0,814,942,000 in 1909. Oak, hicliory and 

 walnut, all of which were once cut into 

 lumber in parts of Canada, have been ex- 

 hausted, and figure now as "other woods," 

 such trees as are marketed being taken 

 from the uncleared portions of farms in 

 the older settled districts. The "soft 

 woods" are the mainstay of the industry, 

 spruce leading in quantity, though not 

 in value. This is followed in order of 

 quantity by white pine. Douglas fir, hem- 

 lock, cedar, and red pine. In values for 

 1909, calculated at mill prices, white pine, 

 $22,563,447, led all the rest. Next came 

 spruce, $16,365,720; Douglas fir, $6,850,579; 

 hemlock, $3,577,372; cedar, $2,645,379; red 

 pine, $2,777,734; balsam, $1,170,840; larch 

 or tamarack, $1,027,344; birch, $990,393; 

 maple, $729,162; basswood, $836,602; elm, 

 $582,999; jack pine, $404,586; yellow pine, 

 $345,710; ash, $315,367; beech, $216,052; 

 poplar, $101,200; oak, $199,205; hickory, 

 $22,100; walnut, $2,440. Of the provinces 

 Ontario leads in value of product, because 

 of its white pine; Quebec has the heaviest 

 output of spruce; and British Columbia 

 of fir and cedar. 



Of poles there were purchased by tele- 

 f;raph, telephone, electric light and power, 

 and steam railway companies operating in 

 Canada during 1909, 358,255, valued at the 

 point of purchase at $497,052. This was 

 nearly double the quantity used in 1908. 

 An increased number of short cedar poles 

 was used, bringing the average price down 

 from $1.53 in 1908 to $1.39 in 1909. Of 

 the poles purchased 338.366 were cedar, 

 the remainder being of larch, spruce, 

 Douglas fir, and others unspecified. 



One hundred and twenty-eight cooperage 

 firms reported to the department. The 

 total value of stock manufactured in 1909 

 was $1,842,235, of which $247,116, or 13.4 

 per cent of the total was tight cooperage 

 and the remainder slack cooperage. 



The reported consumption of lumber for 

 boxes and box shocks for the whole of 

 Canada in 1909 was 82,972,000 feet, valued 

 at $1,264,376. This was used by sixty firms, 

 of which 25 were in Ontario, using 30.3 

 per cent and 22 in Quebec, using 41.5 per 

 cent. The average value of this box ma- 

 terial was $15.24 per thousand feet. These 



returns represent about sixty per cent of 

 the lumber used by the box manufacturers 

 cf Canada, as they do not include the large 

 quantities used by shippers of bulky freight 

 of varying size, who find it more profitable 

 to manufacture their own crates and pack- 

 ages. 



A writer in the Boston Transcript re- 

 cently reviewed in optimistic vein the for- 

 estry situation in Maine, holding that its 

 timber operators have developed a con- 

 servative system of cropping which is fast 

 gaining adherents and that the state is in 

 no danger of losing its forest resources. 

 What is being accomplished in Maine is by 

 private owners, the state having done prac- 

 tically nothing. This writer says: 



"It is a simple problem in invested capi- 

 tal. A company which has sunk two mil- 

 lions in a pulp manufacturing plant on a 

 certain stream, with big holdings of forest 

 at its headwaters learns that an expert for- 

 ester affirms wasteful cutting to be not 

 only beggaring the land, but drying the 

 watercourse. He appears to be telling the 

 truth. He is called in to look us over. We 

 are told that we are on the direct route to 

 put our plant out of business in a period 

 which can be reckoned to the month, but 

 that it is not too late to change. We change. 

 This, in brief, is the history of timber con- 

 servation in Maine. 



Directly the owners began to make their 

 contracts more strict, independent land- 

 owners and companies with large holdings 

 discovered this means of prolonging the 

 yield of their tracts and reducing the waste 

 of cutting to a minimum. By explicit 

 terms in the contract between owners and 

 "operators," the cutters are obliged to ob- 

 serve certain rules in the economy of tim- 

 ber. By a system of inspection, often per- 

 formed by experienced foresters, the own- 

 ers are kept informed of whether these 

 agreements are kept. If they are not, the 

 operators are fined by being charged "dou- 

 ble stumpage" — i. e., the price the opera- 

 tor pays the owner for the privilege of cut- 

 ting, the amount of which is determined 

 by a scale which gives the quantity of lum- 

 ber by board feet. Thus the whoie matter 

 is managed without special legislation; the 

 privilege of cutting is eagerly sought, and 

 by the terms of the contract the owner 

 may impose the fine for breach of agree- 

 ment. 



This programme is very different from 

 the old system when woodsmen went into 



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