Forestry in Nova Scotia 1 1 



Strobtis (Iv.)) '^'^^ I^^d Pine — Finns resi7iosa, Ait. — are common 

 on the lower and less exposed parts. A great deal of White Pine 

 has been cut from the river valleys. Red Pine is not very abun- 

 dant, but all the larger trees have been cut and sawn into lum- 

 ber. Hemlock is onlj^ just beginning to be used. 



Yellow Birch — Betula hctea, Michx. F. — is the best of the 

 hardwoods present. It is commonly fairly straight and sound. 

 Paper Birch — Betula papyri/era, Marsh — is usually straight and 

 sound, but seldom reaches large size. Sugar Maple — Acer sac- 

 charuvi, Marsh ; Red Maple — Acer ricbrum, ly. and Beech — 

 Fagus atropiuiicea (Marsh) Sud worth — are almost without ex- 

 ception defective and will rarely pa}^ for sawing. White Ash — 

 Fraxinus Americana, L., and Black Ash — Fraxinus nigra, 

 Marsh., are rare. Two species of popple — Populus tremidoides, 

 Michx., z.n6. P. gra7idide7itata, Michx. — are found in the prov- 

 ince, but neither is abundant. Red Oak — Quercus rubra, I,., 

 and White Oak — Querents alba, L. — reach commercial size in the 

 sheltered valleys near the shore. Gray Birch — Bettda populifolia, 

 Marsh — is indigenous, but it is not the pest that it is in New 

 England. It never takes possession of fields in the aggressive 

 way in which the New England form does. 



Since the hardwoods play such an unimportant role in the for- 

 est, the great problem for forestry is to devise some scheme of 

 management for the softwoods. Of these White Spruce and Fir 

 deserve the most consideration. White and Red Pine are con- 

 fined for the most part to those classes of soil which are best suited 

 to agriculture and must, therefore, disappear when the popula- 

 tion becomes denser. Hemlock is not a tree of the future, be- 

 cause it does not reproduce well. But White Spruce and Fir 

 reproduce abundantly and grow well on true forest soils. They 

 are the forest trees of the future. 



Logging has been going on in Nova Scotia ever since the Prov- 

 ince was discovered. White Pine, Red Pine, Red and White 

 Oak were the first species cut. Spruce, Fir, and Yellow Birch 

 have also been staple timbers for a long time. Hemlock is only 

 just beginning to be cut on a large scale. Maple, Beech, Ash, 

 Popple, Paper and Gray Birch have not been cut commercially. 



All of the lumbering in the past has been done with one or two 

 horses or oxen, working in the winter when the snow covered up 

 the boulders and gave a good hauling surface. Light sleds and 



