NOTES 62 o 



The capital employed in pulp production also more than quadrupled 

 (to 47.6 million dollars), but the value of the product only trebled (to 

 II million dollars). The export of the pulpwood has remained during 

 these last nine years nearly stationary, averaging about 950.tDOO cords 

 per annum, while the pulp manufacture for home consumption in- 

 creased, more or less fluctuating, from 483,000 to 1,765,000 cords. A 

 most significant comparison is made regarding the relation of capital 

 to product in various industries, which shows that the capital in paper 

 manufacture produces a product value of only 33 per cent and the 

 capital in pulpwood not quite 25 per cent of product value, while the 

 iron and steel industry produces 66 per cent and flour and grist mills 

 about 200 per cent on the invested capital. Finally, a graph is brought 

 to show that if Canada kept all its pulpwood and allowed no export, it 

 would "give sufficient raw material to double our present shipments of 

 paper." A review of the historic development of the paper industry in 

 Canada from 1803 on, when the first paper mill was established, adds 

 interest to the publication. 



Forest and Floods 



Further news regarding the phenomenal floods in the Chihli province 

 of China, the worst since 170 years, referred to on page 373 of this 

 volume, comes through D. Y. Lin, M. F., in a small pamphlet used for 

 forestry propaganda. Altogether nearly 18,000 villages, with 5.6 mil- 

 lion homeless or starving population, are involved. Besides a very fair 

 discussion of the forest influences on stream-flow in general, the opin- 

 ions of a number of civil and hydraulic engineers are quoted, all of 

 whom agree that, whatever may be done by expensive barrages and 

 reservoirs to alleviate these floods in China, the only permanent relief 

 can be found in a systematic plan of reforestation at the headwaters, 

 which have been entirely deforested. The reasons for pinning faith in 

 forest cover comes from the fact that the floods are caused mainly by 

 the silting up of the water channels in the plain from the loess forma- 

 tion in llic mountains. Such silting could hardly be efficientlv taken 

 care of by mechanical barriers and reservoirs, which would simplv silt 

 up themselves. 



At the same time as the above there reaches us Water Supply Paper 

 426, of the U. S. Geological Survey, which describes the southern Cali- 

 fornia floods of January. 1916 — floods which occasioned around $10.- 

 000,000 damage to property and land and in which 28 persons perished. 

 Tt gives on 80 pages of text and tabulations, accompanied by a map, a 



