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The Hardwoods of Canada 



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The Canadian goverumeut printing bureau at Ottawa recentlv 

 published statistics shoeing the uses of wood by manufacturers in 

 the several provinces of that country for the year 1910. Softwoods 

 constituted the bulk of the material used, but enough hardwoods 

 were emplo.yed to make the report of interest to the hardwood 

 people of the United States, whose dealings with Canada are 

 increasing. That country is already drawing supplies of hardwood 

 from south of the international boundary, and according to the 

 report just issued, the amounts must increase from year to year. 

 The total lumber cut in Canada in 1910 was 4,901,649,000 feet, in 

 addition to square timber, lath, and shingles. Of that amount 

 279,433,000 feet were hardwoods. This was not enough to meet 

 the demands of the hardwood users, chiefly those engaged in manu- 

 facturing cars, furniture, agricultural implements, and vehicles, and 

 the deficiency was largely made up by importations from the United 

 States. 



Eighteen hardwoods were used by car builders, fourteen of which 

 were wholly or in part imported from the United States. The 

 leading woods were oak, maple, and birch, aggregating 46,000,000 

 feet. Practically all of the oak came from the United States, and 

 the average price delivered at the Canadian factories was $41.56. 

 while the small quantity of Canadian oak used cost $69.10. The 

 difference in price is sufficient to favor imports. The higher cost 

 of Canadian oak is not due to better grades, but to scarcity. The 

 oak in that country is so scattered that it cannot be handled in 

 large quantities. The average oak mill cuts only 22,000 feet of it 

 a year, and almost the whole supply comes from the one province, 

 Ontario. Formerly much oak grew there, but the lands on which 

 it grew have been cleared for farms. Detached woodlots now fur- 

 nish most of the oak that reaches market, and the supply dimin- 

 ishes year by year. Three species constitute the bulk of the oak 

 timber of Can.ida — white oak (Quercus aVba), red oak {Quercus rubra), 

 and bur oak (Quercus mncrocarpa). The best of the white and red 

 oak grows in Ontario, and the bur oak in Manitoba. 



The oak which Canada imports from the United States comes 

 principally from two regions, "West Virginia and Arkansas. Oak 

 and longleaf pine make up nine-tenths of the car timbers imported 

 from the United States by Canadians. Car manufacturers in that 

 country have attempted to substitute sugar maple and yellow and 

 sweet birch for oak, but the efforts have not been whollv successful. 



Birch and maple lack the beauty which gives oak its principal value 

 as a ear finish material, and for the manufacture of furnituie. 



All the chestnut used by Canadian furniture manufacturers is 

 imported from the United States; also all the red gum, yellow 

 poplar, and most of the cherry. The use of red gum is increasing 

 there. Native grown cherry is virtually extinct north of the Cana- 

 dian boundary, and the United States is the only source of supply. 



The manufacturers of agricultural implements and vehicles in 

 Canada demanded 76,474,000 feet of lumber in 1910, at an average 

 cost at the factory of $32.86 a thousand. The imports, which were 

 almost wholly from the United States, amounted to 26,510,000 feet, 

 half of which was oak and hickory. Sixteen other hardwoods and 

 three or four softwoods supplied the remainder of the imports. 

 About a million feet each of cottonwood and red gum were in- 

 cluded. Seven-eighths of the hickory used by the Canadian imple- 

 ment and vehicle makers grows in the United States. 



The report comments as follows on the woods which the Canadian 

 manufacturers use: 



"It has been shown throughout the preceding table and discus- 

 sion that Canadian manufacturers are now using inferior woods, or 

 are importing their timber at a high cost, which places them at 

 such a disadvantage that it is with difficulty that they compete 

 with the United States manufacturers of furniture, vehicle parts, 

 and hardwood goods. The timber imported is coming from a com- 

 paratively small area of virgin forest in the Mibsissippi valley and 

 Appalachian mountain region of the United States, subject to the 

 whole demand of the United States. As the supply of hardwoods 

 is reduced in the United States, the grades used by the Canadian 

 manufactures must be lowered and the price greatly increased, 

 unless steps are taken to produce in Canada the woods used for 

 manufacturing purposes. Canada is yearly growing more dependent 

 upon foreign countries for her supplies of grades of timber used by 

 manufacturers. ' ' 



The report was compiled by H. E. McMillan of the Canadian 

 Forest Bureau, and covers all industries in the provinces which 

 use wood as a raw material. 



The total amount of wood used annually for manufacturing pur- 

 poses by the whole dominion of Canada is less than one-fourth of 

 the quantity used yearly by manufacturers in the state of Illinois. 



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Improvements that Failed 



There 's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, and there 's 

 many a brilliant plan which has not produced the results which 

 were counted upon. This attempt at philosophy is the result of 

 a recent trip up the Kentucky river, and the observation of the 

 rapid decadence of the once great sawmill industry along that 

 beautiful stream. The business is literally "falling to pieces, and 

 the prospects are not bright for a revival of the trade. Yet the 

 very thing which has made it impossible to operate mills success- 

 fully on that river was originally counted upon to give permanence 

 to the trade. 



Reference is made to the locking and damming of the river. 

 "When the government first took the project in hand, it was re- 

 ceived with great enthusiasm, and sawmill operators and log men 

 thought that the construction of such a system, which would 

 result in the stream being navigable throughout the year, would 

 be not only a boon to the business, but would enable it to be con- 

 tinued upon a profitable basis much longer than would be the case 

 without such assistance. The work has proceeded now until the 

 canalization of the river has been practically completed, and only 

 the mills far up the stream are out of the zone in which the 



locks are used. 



"While the locks and dams have been of a certain advantage to 

 ordinary commercial traffic — which, however, is of minor import- 

 ance along the river and probably will never reach large propor- 

 tions, except possibly in the lower sections of the stream — they 

 have made the operation of sawmills almost out of the question. 

 The reason is simple. Instead of being able to boom the logs, 

 and handle them with little or no labor and expense, it is now 

 necessary to construct rafts, and to tow the logs slowly and care- 

 fully along the stream, taking them through the locks piecemeal 

 and consuming weeks to do what was formerly accomplished in a 

 few days. 



The expense involved in the operation is relatively tremendous, 

 and the cost of the logs to the sawmill man, in addition to the 

 stumpage value, has advanced to a marked extent. The number 

 of men required to handle the rafts, together with the expense of 

 towing, has been so great as to make handling the logs on the 

 river an operation requiring a considerable amount of capital, 

 compared with the old plan, and has reduced the margin of profit 

 of the business to the vanishing point. 



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