330 TRAXSACTIOXS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The question of the extent to which the timber resources of 

 Canada can be relied on as a permanent source of supply to the 

 United Kingdom must depend in large measure on the extent to 

 which these resources are drawn upon to meet the demands of 

 the United States; and this again depends, of course, on the 

 extent to which the States are able to supply their own needs. 



The situation in that country is well illustrated by the follow- 

 ing extract from The American Luviherman, its leading timber 

 journal : — 



The value of timber is appreciated to-day by the general public as it was 

 not forty or fifty years ago. Then there were " worlds of timber," to use a 

 favourite southern expression, and it seemed hardly possible to aD3'one that 

 there could be a lack of any variety. Now lumbermen are still in active 

 business who have seen the white pine of Pennsylvania disappear, who see 

 the wonderful resources of Michigan represented by a few isolated tracts, 

 who have seen the production of Wisconsin reduced, and who know that the 

 life of the industry in Minnesota, the last stronghold of this king of American 

 woods, is limited. Besides these veterans of the industry are thousands of 

 younger men who have seen white pine stumpage double in value within 

 their own active career, and so it does not require much faith or nerve, but 

 only a modicum of common sense and prudence, to say that any timber at 

 almost any price which now must be paid for it is a safe investment. 



The Toronto Globe, from which the above is quoted, thus 

 concludes : — 



Some of the influences favouring the sentiment in support of reciprocity 

 with Canada may be traced to this cause, and to the fact that the pulp-mills 

 are making such large demands upon the spruce forests that the lumbermen 

 are practically shut out from dealing in that kind of timber, and the 

 increasing demands of both industries make new resources of supply a 

 necessity. 



Canada, however, has hardly as yet realised that it holds such an important 

 place in the economy of the world in this respect, and with the improvidence 

 of youth still leaves waste immense tracts that could with ordinary care be 

 made useful and continued sources of wealth, while even that which is used 

 is not made productive as it might be. The importance to the Dominion of 

 the perpetuation of the lumber industry is shown by the value of the export 

 of forest products (including manufactures), which during the last fiscal year 

 amounted to 31,958,255 dols. In the Province of Ontario, out of a total 

 revenue of 4,466,043 dols., woods and forests contributed 1,479,847 dols., 

 and in the Province of Quebec, for the year previous, 1,112,529 dols. out of 

 a revenue of 4,771,567 dols. In New Brunswick the return from woods and 

 forests makes up about one-fifth of the ordinary revenue. While in the 

 other Provinces the revenue is smaller, it is capable, with proper manage- 

 ment, of becoming a very important addition to the Provincial income. 



