d-irG JOURNAL on" FOKKS'l'in- 



year purchased some lighter tractors of the caterpillar type and will this 

 winter experiment under conditions in the St. Maurice Valley. The use 

 of tractors for log-hauling is already established in parts of British 

 Columbia and in various sections of the United States. 



The second obstacle to the removal of the hardwoods in our northern 

 mixed forests has been lack of a suitable market, particularly by the 

 pulp and paper companies, which hold rapidly increasing areas of such 

 lands. Formerly only spruce was accepted for use as groundwood in 

 the manufacture of newsprint; later balsam was accepted in an increas- 

 ing proportion, and now both species are used practically without dis- 

 crimination. It has always been considered impracticable, how^ever, to 

 use birch or other hardwoods acceptably for groundwood. The For- 

 estry Department of the Laurentide Company has, however, for a long 

 time urged that experiments be made with a view to the utilization of 

 birch in the manufacture of newsprint, and an experiment was recently 

 made by the company which appears to give excellent promise of satis- 

 factory developments along this line. A test run was made, the results 

 of which indicate that up to lo per cent of birch groundwood can be 

 used to excellent advantage in mixture with spruce and balsam ground- 

 wood in the manufacture of newsprint. 



It is expected that further tests will be made in collaboration with 

 the Dominion Forest Products Laboratories. Should the final results 

 be satisfactory and should the use of tractors solve the problem of 

 transportation to any material extent, a new era will be opened up in 

 the intelligent handling of our vast areas of mixed forests. It will 

 then be possible to utilize large quantities of birch in the manufacture 

 of newsprint, thus materially relieving the increasing drain upon spruce 

 and balsam, and at the same time leaving the corresponding logged-over 

 areas in good condition for future production instead of constantly 

 depreciating their quality, as has been the tendency under the only 

 methods of operation hitherto considered feasible. Should these de- 

 velopments come to pass, forestry will find an immense scope for activ- 

 ity in our northern forests, replacing, at least in part, the destructive 

 methods so generally practiced heretofore. 



C. L. 



Timber Supplies of the United Kingdom 



The experiences of the war may advance forestry ideas more rapidly 

 in Great Britain than all pre-war propaganda. The forestry section of 

 the British Empire IVoducers' Organization recently issued a report on 



