156 



States, as circumstances are so entirely different there. Unfortunately I am not 

 sufficiently familiar with them to venture an opinion as to judicious measures to be taken 

 for the protection of the forests, and it would have given me great pleasure to have 

 informed myself on the grounds and to have taken part in the deliberations, 



I trust you will grant me the favor to inform me of the result of your sessions, and 

 consider me always ready to give all desired information concerning, as well as our forest 

 arrangements, as our usual mode of planting and cultivating trees ; indeed, to give in- 

 formation of all kinds and at all times. 



Permit me now, my dear sir, to thank you most heartily for your friendly invitation 

 and to express my sincere regrets at my inability to accept the same. Give my kindest 

 regards to the gentlemen of the committee. I wrote to Mr. Adolph Strauch a few days 

 before the receipt of your letter. I thank you for your friendly wishes, and return mine 

 most heartily. 



I am, with greatest respect, 



Richard Yox Steuben, 



Royal Chief Forester, 



The first paper read was from the venerable James Little of Montreal, Canada, which 

 is as follows: — 



While my efforts have been mainly directed toward the protection from destruction of 

 the forests of white pine, it has been painful to me to witness that our other commercial 

 woods, such as walnut and oak and ash, are nearly all gone, and our pine, spruce, birch 

 and tamarac are following so fast that we will soon have nothing left of commex'cial 

 value. 



I know that the idea prevails on the American side of the line that the area of 

 timber land in Canada is so great, that the supplies ai-e practically exhaustless ; but this 

 idea, I regret to say, is not borne out by the facts. The best authorities state, and I be- 

 lieve it true, that ten thousand millions of feet, board measure, will comprise all the 

 merchantable pine of the Pz'ovinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brnnswick and ISTova Scotia ; 

 and, as we are drawing from these points over one thousand millions annually, less than 

 ten years will, unless the production be curtailed, use up our whole stock. 



As to the pine of Newfoundland, a fair amount of pine is yet standing in that Province, 

 and the same may be said with regard to the territory adjoining the Hudson's Bay. It 

 has not been satisfactorily explored, but what little is known of it does not warrant us in 

 anticipating any great amount of valuable timber from that region ; and whatever supply 

 there may be will go but a short way to meet the wants of the settlers who are flocking 

 into the treeless prairie country lying to the west of it. 



The Province of Quebec possesses an aggregate of about 5,000,000,000 feet, Ontario 

 3,500,000,000, New Brunswick 1,500,000,000. 



Whether the amount may exceed this estimate, which I have gathered from the best 

 sources of information attainable, or not, there is one thing sure, that our magnificent 

 forests of pine are about all gone, and the remark of Mr. Charles Gibb, " that our native 

 Avhite pine may yet be peddled in some parts of our country as a rare exotic, so scarce has 

 it become," is certainly to be realized in the near future. 



New Brunswick, that a few years ago sent the finest quality of pine to England, can 

 only now ship a quality that realizes the same price as spruce, and the great Ottawa rafts 

 that used to average from eighty to one hundred cubic feet per stick are now made up of 

 pieces of which an average of fifty feet is only obtainable by culling over a large extent 

 of territor3^ In fact, the size of the timber is so reduced that in Britain they are forced 

 to buy our pitch pine of the South of the United States to get large-sized timber, and the 

 sizes of the logs now made are so small that at an informal meeting of manufacturers of 

 deals for the English market, held in Quebec, the subject was seriously discussed of reduc- 

 ing the size of stocks for pine deals from the present standard — eleven inches in width — 

 to nine inches, the same as the spruce deal. 



