780 JOURNAI, OF FORESTRY 



300 board feet per capita. She can only get from her forests 30 feet 

 per capita; the balance of 90 per cent she must import from Canada, 

 the Pacific Coast, and the southern States. 



Less than 5 per cent of the original forests of the New England 

 States remain. The original pine forests of Michigan. Minnesota, 

 and Wisconsin, estimated to contain 350 billion feet, talked of as 

 inexhaustible, are now reduced to six billion feet. These densely 

 populated States are now dependent on timber grown and manufac- 

 tured elsewhere ; and in a very few years will be absolutely dependent 

 on Pacific Coast timber. 



The bulk of the timber used in the eastern and central States dur- 

 ing the past 15 years was grown in the pine forests of the South, but 

 these forests have been so heavily cropped that they have now been 

 reduced from 650 billion board feet to 150 billion board feet. Much 

 of this is small timber on cut-over land : and within seven years these 

 States will cease to be a factor to reckon with in the export business, 

 for they wall require their timber for their own domestic use. 



At the last meeting of the Southern Pine Association it was esti- 

 mated that 80 per cent of their mills will close within seven years, not 

 having any further supply of timber for their use. This means that 

 British Columbia and the Pacific States of the United States will 

 have to supply the wants of the United States market and the Prairie 

 Provinces of Canada in addition to filling the wants of the export 

 trade, with Europe. Australia, South Africa, the Orient, and South 

 America. 



A. L. Clear. President of the V^ancouver Lumber Company, some 

 time ago had courage enough to state that we had not nearly the 

 amount of timber in British Columbia that we were credited with. 

 He estimated our resources at approximately 150 billion feet. Dr. 

 Judson Clark, a well known authority on timber in British Columbia, 

 estimates the total stand of accessible merchantable timber to be ap- 

 proximately 100 billion feet. Personally, from 17 years' observation 

 and examination of the timber in British Columbia by our firm, T 

 incline to the figures as given by Dr. Clark. 



British Columbia has an area of 359,000 square miles, of which 

 only 40,000 miles is commercially forested; 110,000 square miles of 

 our timber lands containing 665 billions of feet has been totally de- 

 stroyed and as the humus has been burned it will be centuries before 

 it is again covered with a forest growth. The Slocan and southern 

 boundary countries of British Columbia have been so burned over 



