t>i8 The yournal of Foi^estry. 



furnaces, forges, and other establishments, having occasion to use it in 

 large quantities, with the view of obtaining facts of practical value 

 relative to its economical production and consumption. Answers are 

 asked to questions anent the number of bushels of charcoal consumed 

 per annum ; number of bushels used in making a ton of iron ; cost 

 per bushel delivered ; the different kinds of timber used in making 

 charcoal and their relative value ; the best mode of preparation ; the 

 liquid or gaseous products saved during the process of manufacture ; 

 and the average yield of good charcoal from an acre of woodland. 



Forestry Circular, No. 6, is the last of the series, but by no means 

 the least important one of them. It is addressed to Botanists, Ento- 

 mologists, and other Observers in Natural History, and contains many 

 important queries upon subjects which come within the range of 

 students of Natural History, especially in its Botanical and Entomolo- 

 gical departments; specially prepared blank forms being issued for 

 filling up with replies for this section of the report. 



In the report on the Canadian forests drawn up by the Hon. H. G. 

 Joly, member of the Dominion Council of Agriculture, and which has 

 lately been submitted to the Dominion Parliament, he points out very 

 forcibly that the forest wealth of the Dominion is being rapidly 

 exhausted. The splendid pine and spruce forests on the Pacific 

 shores of the Dominion, in British Columbia, are scarcely yet touched 

 by the omnivorous " lumberman," but from the confines of the Kocky 

 Mountains eastward to the borders of the province of Ontario there 

 does not appear to be more timber than is barely sufficient to meet local 

 wants. The great forest of Canada, far excellence, is situated in the 

 vast district watered by the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, the Saguenay, and 

 their tributaries, and covers an area of over 100,000 square miles. 

 There are also lesser, but still very extensive tracts of forest, in the 

 Georgian Bay country ; in the Muskoka and Nipissing regions ; in 

 eastern Quebec, and along both shores of the St. Lawrence to its 

 mouth, and in the districts watered by most of the tributaries which 

 flow into it ; and also throughout the province of New Brunswick. 

 These forests generally have been long worked, and at intervals have 

 suffered terribly from fires, so that they cannot be expected to supply 

 first quality pine for any lengthened period, but they still contain an 

 immense quantity of spruce, sufiicient if protected and properly worked 

 to produce a full supply for many years. Spruce, unlike the pine in 

 North America, freely reproduces itself, and a forest of it, if properly 

 managed, will give a never-failing supply of excellent timber. 



The great Canadian pine forest on the Ottawa, St. Maurice, and 



