The Timber Supply of North America. 163 



The value of exports and home consumption since 1870 is given in 

 the following table: — 



Exports. Home consumption. 



1870 $20,940,434 10,000,000 



1871 22,352,211 11,000,000 



1872 23,685,382 11,500,000 



1873 28,586,816 ' 14,000,000 



1874 26,817,715 13,000,000 



1875 24,781,780 12,000,000 



1876 19,785,000 10,000,000 



This statement only includes exports from Ontario, Quebec, New 

 Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Timber is sold at an average of 3s. per 

 1,000 ft., board measure, of sawn lumber, and |d. per cubic foot for 

 round timber. About 25 per cent, of the standing price is available 

 for square timber, 40 per cent, for sawn logs, and the remaining 35 per 

 cent, is undergirth, useless or damaged timber. 



On the Pacific side of the continent there are extensive forests of 

 pine, but like that growing in the Southern States it is of very little 

 value. The timber used in the waggon factories of San Francisco and 

 Sacramento is transported from the Eastern States. Oregon timber 

 lacks tenacity, and is utterly unfit to make even an axe-helve; 

 besides, lumbermen acknowledge that the supply in these regions 

 has always been overstated. 



On the western slope of the Blue Mountains a curious method of 

 transporting saw^n lumber from the mills to the nearest' port is 

 adopted. The agent employed being water, the first consideration is 

 ■ selecting a site to erect the mill where a copious supply of water 

 can be obtained by gravitation. When this can be depended on, the 

 mill and subsequent destination of the timber are connected with a 

 continuous aqueduct, built with boards thirty inches broad, securely 

 nailed on the nether side, forming an acute angle, like the letter 

 V, and substantially supported on cross brackets. The trough is 

 filled with water from a diverted stream. The speed in a grade of one 

 in 100 is calculated at eight miles per hour, and of course as the incline 

 is augmented the ratio of velocity is also increased. The Chico and 

 Arcado " flume " is forty miles long, and is travelled over in four hours, 

 carrying 110,000 feet of inch lumber per day, equal to 55,000 tons per 

 annum. 



Eeverting to the assumption that the timber supply in the Eastern 

 States and Canada will be totally exhausted in fifty years, the ques- 

 tion may be asked, can no remedy be suggested to secure a permanent 

 supply to all future generations ? Most undoubtedly there can. The 

 prosperity of the country depends so much on the product of her 

 forests, that it is imperative on the part of the respective Governments 



