1^6 



Still further light is thrown on this subject by the following paper contributed by 

 Mr. James Little, of Montreal, and read at the Cincinnati meeting : — 



THE WHITE PINE FOKESTS OF CANADA. 

 By James Little, of Montreal. 



The devastating effects of freshets, the barrenness of sections of the country deprived 

 of timber, and the failure of supplies of water to streams during the summer months 

 (which years ago were well supplied), and which I believe to be mainly due to the 

 destructive habit that has obtained of clearing off too much of the forest land — these 

 questions, however, I leave to others who have given them more thought, and confine my 

 remarks to the condition of our own White Pine forests, and the serious commercial effects 

 which would arise from a total loss of our woodlands, a condition likely soon to reach us 

 unless we immediately adopt measures for their protection, and begin, by tree-planting, to 

 supply the waste. 



Labouring, as I may say, almost single handed for a long time to bring our own 

 people, as well as yours, to a proper knowledge of this subject, it is most gratifying to me 

 now to find the papers of your country so generally taking up the question of Forestry, 

 and, when I say that I wish your association the greatest success, it but faintly expresses 

 my feelings, and I hope that the eminent men, who are now giving their minds to this 

 great question, having the valuable statistical information that Professor Sargent has 

 obtained to aid them, will keep it before the people till a proper appreciation of its im- 

 portance is generally acknowledged. 



I may remark that, while my efforts have been mainly directed towards the protec- 

 tion from destruction of the forests of White Pine, it has been painful to me to witness 

 that our other commercial woods, such as walnut, once so abundant in certain sections 

 that farmers used it for fence rails, and oak and ash, which were for long a great source 

 of revenue to the country, are nearly all gone, and our pine, spruce, birch, and tamarac 

 are following so fast that we will soon have nothing left of commercial value ; and the 

 same process of denudation has gone on in your own limited area of woodland, as is so 

 plainly shown in Professor Brewer's excellent map, published in connection with the 

 census of 1870, where the area of treeless territory, as compared with woodlands, gives 

 your country the appearance of a large, cleared farm with patches of woodland on its 

 outer edges. 



I know that the idea prevails, on your side, that the area of timber land in Canada 

 is so great that the supplies are practically exhaustless, but this idea, I regret to say, is 

 not borne out by the facts. With the view of arriving at some definite knowledge of the 

 quantity, I have consulted with the best authorities we have, and am fully persuaded 

 that 10,000 millions of feet, board measure, will comprise all the merchantable pine of 

 the Provinces of Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, and, as we are 

 drawing from these points over one thousand millions annually, less than ten years at 

 our present rate of cutting will use up our whole stock. 



It may also be as well to remark, as frequent mention is made of the pine of Newfound- 

 land and the Hudson' Bay country, that, as regards Newfoundland, it is only near the 

 streams, ponds, and bodies of water that the white pine is found, and it was never abund- 

 ant or to any great extent of a large size or good quality — the best of it has, moreover, 

 been shipped from this country principally to Nova Scotia. The White Pine spoken of 

 near Hudson's Bay evidently refers to the spruce, which is miscalled Pine and White Pine 

 in some of the British markets. The only pine found near there is the Banksian pine, an 

 inferior timber tree, seldom large enough for sawing, and its nothern limit is south of 

 both James' and Hudson's Bays, as may be seen on Prof. Bell's map showing the northern 

 limit of Canadian trees. 



To give anything like a correct estimate of the remaining stock of standing pine 

 timber is most difiicult, as the Governments seem to know little or nothing on the subject, 

 and the owners of such property have private reasons for withholding what knowledge 



