778 JOURNAI, OF FORESTRY 



an exporter of lumber, and the Pacific Coast will be called upon to 

 supply the deficiency. 



The United States annually uses 38 billion board feet of lumber; 

 that is to say, all the saw timber we have in British Columbia would 

 only last the people of the United States three years. Her wood fuel 

 consumption is enormous. Last year it was 110 million cords. The 

 United States railroads used annually 125 million railroad ties, and 

 six billion feet of timber is used just for boxes, crates, and barrels. 



Already the people on the other side of the line are preparing for 

 a timber famine. Reforestation is practiced in many of the eastern 

 States. The pulp and paper companies, who formerly were self-sup- 

 porting in pulp timber, now obtain two-thirds of their pulp, paper, 

 or pulp wood from Canada ; and if as is quite probable, Canada pro- 

 hibits the export of pulp wood across the line, most of these com- 

 panies will be put out of business, and investments totalling hundreds 

 of millions of dollars will be wiped out. 



In Quebec and Ontario, the large pulp and paper companies realize 

 the necessity of a continuous supply of timber ; and although they still 

 have thousands of square miles of timber, they are now engaged in 

 systematic reforestation on the cut-over areas ; as fast as a tract 

 is logged, they plan to reforest it. Their logging methods are super- 

 vised by Government foresters and no waste is tolerated. The Gov- 

 ernment of the Province of Quebec is now planning to fix the maxi- 

 mum annual cut of timber and also a minimum cut, to stop speculation 

 on Government lands. They have sent young forestry engineers to 

 Europe to study the best forestry methods and are engaged in refor- 

 estation on a large scale. 



It is time that British Columbia took warning and reorganized 

 their forest branch. 



In Quebec and Ontario timber is cut down to, in some cases, four 

 inches on the stump for pulp making, and in this connection, it may 

 interest you to know that last year some of the paper mills of the 

 United States sent crews of loggers into the remote sections of On- 

 tario and Quebec, where the freight alone on cord wood amounted to 

 $16 and over per cord. Last year the United States pulp and paper 

 mills used over five and one-half million cords of wood. This means 

 a solid pile of wood four feet high, four feet wide 9.000 miles long; 

 and bear in mind, this amotmt is used every year, and the amount is 

 constantly increasing. 



