CANADIAN LUMBER COMPETITION 



By H. D. Langille 



TWENTY-FIVE hundred miles 

 of peaceful, unfortified boundar}' 

 separates two countries hardly 

 less similar in racial qualities 

 than two contiguous States of the Union. 

 In physical characteristics the two draw 

 apart — the one reaching north\A'ard into 

 the Great Barrens; the other southward 

 into tropical luxuriance. The one yields 

 only sustenance for sturd}' types; the 

 other is adaptable to every race and 

 productive of almost e\^ery product 

 required by humanity. The United 

 States may be self-sufficient; Canada 

 cannot be so. Its greatest development 

 has taken place at its southern extrem- 

 ities, almost within its southernmost 

 two degrees of latitude. Its population 

 in 1911 was only 1.9 souls per square 

 mile. The Silent Places are vacant. 



The forest geography of the two 

 countries is not dissimilar. Eastward 

 from Manitoba there was once a vast 

 forest of white and Norway pine corre- 

 sponding to that of Minnesota and 

 Michigan; while in the southern penin- 

 sula of Ontario was an almost solid 

 forest of hardwoods. Quebec was the 

 home of spruce. The Maritime Prov- 

 inces were densely forested with pine, 

 spruce, hackmatack, balsam, hemlock 

 and various hardwoods. The Height of 

 Land defines the northern boundary of 

 the pine forest. Northward stretches 

 a great scope of spruce woods reaching 

 to Hudson's Bay and thence north- 

 westward almost to the Arctic Sea in 

 latitude nearly seventy degrees. 



The earliest records of lumber manu- 

 facturing in the provinces runs back to 

 1696 when planks for gun platforms 

 were cut in New Brunswick. In 1761 

 it was reported that thirty-one saw mills 

 were in operation in Nova Scotia. 

 Continually since that time the Domin- 

 ion has given of its forests to the world 

 and despite restrictive tariff measures 

 enacted by the United States there 

 has been an almost constant increase 



in the volume of lumber exported across 

 the border. As early as 1813 the value 

 of wood exports was $29,397,534. In 

 1897, the fiscal year preceding the adop- 

 tion of the Dingley bill, the exportation 

 of sawed hrniber to the United States 

 was 883,770,000 feet In 1898, "the 

 year following the restoration of the 

 old duty of S2.00 on lumber, the imports 

 of boards, deals, etc., dropped to 

 353,134,000 feet."^ The total limber 

 production of Canada in 1912 was 

 4,389,723 M. In the United States it 

 was 39,158,414 M. The average annual 

 cut per mill in Canada was 1800 Al 

 against 1300 M in the States. 



The white pine cut of Canada reached 

 its maximum in 1908 and the depletion 

 of its hardwood supply has been rapid. 

 The volume of hardwoods imported 

 during 1910 exceeded by 50 per cent, 

 the value of the hardwoods manufac- 

 tured into lumber in Canada during 

 that year. As in the United States the 

 scene of greatest production by a single 

 state or province has shifted to the 

 western coast. 



The forests of the eastern and nor- 

 thern United States, like those of 

 Eastern Canada, are fast disappearing. 

 With their disappearance has passed the 

 most romantic period in the history of 

 the lumber woods. The chanties are 

 forgotten. 



Alike in forest physiography, the 

 forest development of the two countries 

 has followed parallel lines. The spread 

 of prairies on both sides of the inter- 

 national boundary has been spanned. 

 The scenes of greatest activity have been 

 transferred to the western side of the 

 continent where another expanse of 

 forest invites the energies of the men 

 of the woods. Under new physical and 

 economical conditions the contest has 

 been renewed. The last act in the 

 tragedy of America's coniferous forests 

 is staged in British Columbia and the 



1 "History of the Lumber Industry. 

 130 



