THE OUTLOOK OP THE WORLD'S TIMBER SUPPLY. 377 



cutting has developed so rapidly of late, that, as regards Ontario, 

 it is stated, "its increasing use for the manufacture of wood- 

 pulp threatens serious inroads upon this valuable tree." The third 

 of the most important trees, the Douglas fir, has its principal 

 home in British Columbia ; it appears in commerce as Oregon 

 pine. 



From a commercial point of view the forests of Canada must be 

 divided into two parts — the eastern, which supplies chiefly the 

 United States and Europe ; and the western, which exports also to 

 the United States, to Asia, Australia, and other countries. As 

 already stated, the eastern half has not responded to the extra 

 requirements of Europe, and I doubt whether Canada will be able 

 to do so in the future, unless decided steps are taken at once to 

 start thorough protection and systematic management on selected 

 areas, or, as they may be called, reserved State forests. Mr 

 Johnson says : — 



"A large portion of the (eastern) forests has been devilled, 

 which means that all good trees have been cut out by the lumber- 

 men for marketable timber. The careless torch has lighted fires like 

 the Miramichi fire, which swept with fierce energy over an area of 

 more than three million acres, leaving blackened giant pines to be 

 a reminder, for more than half a century, of the immense destruc- 

 tion there and then caused. Vast areas have suffered from fire so 

 severely that in many places the soil has been burned off to the 

 very rock ; and a century's disintegrating force will have to act 

 upon the rock before there can be soil enough created for practical 

 uses." 



Again, Mr Edwards said, in 1893, in the Canadian Par- 

 liament : — 



" It is safe to say, and I am sure that every lumberman in this 

 House will bear me out in that statement, that ten times the 

 amount of forest wealth has been destroyed in Canada through 

 forest fires than has been cut by the lumbermen." 



The cuttings in 1893 were estimated to amount to 40,000,000 

 tons, and if Mr Edwards is right, the annual destruction would 

 amount to 400,000,000 tons, or considerably more than the 

 existing timber area produces. This is not a nice state of things 

 to behold. Since then the forest question has attracted more and 

 more attention. Measures have been taken to introduce a more 

 economical system of lumbering and to check fires. But what 

 can a small establishment do over vast areas ? Taking Quebec, 



