318 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. X. 



THE DENUDATION OF OUR FORESTS. 



By G. L. Marler. 

 Read before the American Forestry Congress at Montreal, Au*. 22nd, 1882. 



Having had twenty years' experience as a forest ranger on the 

 south shore of the St. Lawrence I can speak on this subject from 

 personal knowledge. The Province of Quebec is one of the 

 principal territories from which mercantile lumber is drawn. 

 When I speak of mercantile lumber I refer to that which is ob- 

 tained from the following trees : — 



Deciduous — Oak, elm, ash, birch, walnut, butternut, hickory, 

 ironwood, maple, basswood, white birch, beech, poplar, cherry, 

 balm of Gilead, plain tree, willow. 



Evergreens — Pine, spruce, larch, cedar, balsam, hemlock. 



There are two large belts of timber land in the Province of 

 Quebec, one on the south side and the other and greater on the 

 north of the St. Lawrence. The first extends from Graspe to 

 the head waters of the Connecticut river and from the banks of 

 the St. Lawrence to the line separating the Province from New 

 Brunswick and the United States. This belt contains about 

 30,000 square miles. The other extends from below the Sague- 

 nay to the Ottawa, and from the St. Lawrence northward 200 

 miles. It contains about 120,000 square miles. 



Until a few years ago these great belts of timber land were 

 reached only by the streams running through them, and could 

 only be devastated by the lumbermen a few miles each side of 

 these rivers, leaving large spaces untouched by the woodman's 

 axe. But during the last twenty years this great belt has become 

 the field of some dozen railroads, which have cut up the land like 

 a checker board, and we must expect that in another ten years 

 this belt will be entirely denuded of all merchantable timber. 



The northern belt is now passing into the same phase as the 

 southern. The rivers on the north shore are not so numerous 

 as on the south side of the St. Lawrence, but they are of greater 

 magnitude and extend further into the interior. Like the other 

 belt, it is now being cut up by railways. If we open the Gov- 

 ernment statistics book we find that the gross returns of the for- 

 ests for the year 1881 amount to the neat little sum of $24,- 

 802,06-1, and as compared with the total exports of the Dominion 

 of Canada, are equal to \ of the total amount, $92,000,826. 



According to Government returns for 1871, the value of tim- 

 ber exported was $22,872,591. 



