158 EEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



of providing for it, is infinitesimal wlien compared with the needed 



"1 



The hard-wood forests, though in some localities diminished beyond 

 desirable proportions, owing to their natural reproductive power are 

 in less danger of extinction, or even of deterioration, than the more 

 useful, more necessary, and at the same time less easily reproduced 

 pine forests. Yet even in regard to these, complaints of the deficiency 

 of suitable supplies for manufactures are plentiful. 



The enormous yield of the forests on the Pacific slope, though prob- 

 ably overstated for average amounts, will perhaps furnish timber for 

 many decades; but attach:ed under the same conditions as the once 

 ''inexhaustible" timber areas of the Northwest, and under the same 

 methods of treatment, we cannot expect better results than we have 

 witnessed in connection with these Northwestern forests. 



Of the Rocky Mountain forest area as a whole not much can be ex- 

 pected in regard to lumber supply, except for local purposes. But the 

 existence of these forests on the' mountain-sides serves a much more 

 important purpose in holding snow and water for the use of the agri- 

 cultural lands below during the dry seasons to which they are liable, 

 and in preventing or lessening torrential action. A large part of the 

 forests of Southern California and of other mountainous regions 

 belong to the same category (important chiefly on account of their 

 position), and should be managed and utilized with a A^ew to the best 

 interests of the lower agricultural lands. 



IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 



The following tables are compiled mostly from the reports of the 

 Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department. An indefinite 

 amount of wood in manufactured articles not enumerated would in- 

 crease these amounts. 



The imports of forest products from Canada form naturally the bulk 

 of our importation, amounting to $9,355,736 for the year ending June 

 30, 1885, equal, perhaps, to round 75,000,000 cubic feet. Almost the 

 entire cut of the Province of Ontario, amounting in value to $7,371,028 

 for the year 1884, comes to the United States. This shows that the duty 

 of $2 a thousand feet does not prevent competition, and also that from 

 its abolition little hope is to be drawn for the preservation of our re- 

 sources. In Canada there can be little doubt that all the possibilities 

 of production are even now strained to the utmost. * The exportation 

 of forest products from Canada used to go entirely to Great Britain 

 and the West Indies; but since the pine lands of the Northwestern 

 States have become gradually depleted, Canadians have successfully 

 competed with the lumbermen of Michigan and Wisconsin, till to-day 

 their exports to Great Britain and the United States are almost equal 

 in amount. The expressions of the Hon. H. G. Joly, member of the 

 Dominion Council of Agriculture, show that the visible supplies of 

 white pine in Canada are almost in the same deplorable condition as 

 those in the United States, and that the prospect of supplying our 

 needs by importations from Canada is altogetlier not very encourag- 

 ing. 



*For the year ending June 30, 1886, the trade and navigation returns of the Do- 

 minion show the total exportation of forest products from Canada to the United 

 States as amounting to $8,500,000, or 40 per cent, of the total lumber export. On- 

 tario exporting to this country to the value of $6,500,000; Quebec, |1, 300, 000; Nova 

 Scotia, .|370,000; New Brunswick, $438,000. 



