APPENDIX A LI 



these reserves in Canada, about one-half is in the old provinces of 

 eastern Canada and the other half in British Columbia. The evidence 

 goes to show that at the present rate of cutting the supply of timber 

 will within a comparatively few years be sufficient only for the needs 

 of the Dominion itself, leaving no surplus for export. A forest survey 

 of the province of Nova Scotia by Dr. Fernow has shown that in that 

 province, if the saw mills which are now at work continue in opera- 

 tion with their present output, the merchantable timber will be en- 

 tirely exhausted in the next 20 years. In 1895 the Dominion Statisti- 

 cian stated in his report that "the first quality of pine has disappeared" 

 and that "we are within reasonable distance of the time when with 

 the exception of spruce as to wood and British Columbia as to prov- 

 inces, Canada shall cease to be as now an exporting country." 



It must be borne in mind that while a large part of Canada is 

 covered with forest, much of this is a woodland country rather than a 

 country covered with a forest which produces considerable supplies 

 of merchantable timber. Furthermore, the practice which has been 

 followed of cutting out the valuable kinds of timber has left the suc- 

 cessively poorer and inferior species of trees — "tree weeds," as they have 

 been called — to multiply without restraint, and thus the forest gradu- 

 ally changes its character and deteriorates in value. Moreover, the 

 rivers draining the northern forest flow down to Hudson's Bay, so 

 that the logs if floated down the streams would reach that body of 

 water instead of the St. Lawrence or the Great Lakes. With the ap- 

 proaching exhaustion of the reserves of standing timber, there has 

 sprung up within the past few years a demand for pulpwood, to supply 

 which the younger and smaller trees are taken and ground up for the 

 manufacture of paper. Fortunately this is not necessarily so fatal 

 to the continued existence of our forests as might be supposed, for 

 the younger trees, if properly cared for, grow in relatively few years 

 to the size required for pulp-wood. Thus, if the limits over which 

 a company cuts its supplies are large and properly cared for, they 

 can be made to produce a continuous supply of wood for the pulp 

 mill. Our great water powers adjacent to the supply of raw material 

 should make this pulp and paper industry a permanent source of wealth 

 to the Dominion. 



The growth of the pulp industry in Canada is set forth in the 

 following table and is shown graphically in the accompanying diagram. 

 In addition to the wood cut in Canada for the manufacture of 

 Canadian pulp, a very large amount is shipped to the United States 

 and there ground into pulp. 



