REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 29 



of the softwoods to fungus diseases. Dr. Faull, I believe, has found over 20 

 different kinds chewing at the vitals of balsam. This is the reason that we 

 cannot depend upon this species as a source of pulpwood supply in the future. 



We do not know as much as we should know with regard to the rate of 

 growth of our forests. If the annual increase is as great as the annual loss, 

 then the forests are self-sustaining and we have nothing to worry about. The 

 chief object of all a forester's efforts is to get the area, over which he has charge, 

 into that condition. Only b}- procuring a sustained and regulated yield can 

 he furnish a continuous suppl}' of raw material to the wood-manufacturing 

 industries. That is -^lat j'our Provincial Forester is trying to do. That is 

 what the foresters of pulpwood companies, of which you ha^e such splendid 

 examples in this Pro\'ince, are trying to accomplish. That is what the foresters 

 all over Canada are striving for — the furnishing of an endless succession of 

 wood crops for the lumbering and the pulp and paper industries. 



Let me tell you some ot the things we do know about the rate of growth 

 in our forests. There are many misconceptions as to how fast trees grow in 

 the natiu'e habitat. Some one notices a fast growing forest tree in his field 

 or garden , or in an open pasture and he concludes that trees in the forest grow 

 at the same rate. In the one case, the tree is more or less cultivated and is 

 not subjected to competition by neighbors; in the other case it is subjected to 

 a severe struggle for life from the day it is born, and this expresses itself in 

 retarded growth. I have made growth studies on several thousand trees in 

 the mixed hardwood-softwood type in Ontario, Quebec and New-Brunswick, 

 and I find that in the shade of the over-topping hardwoods, it requires about 

 30 years to make a spruce tree 1 inch in diameter; the average 4 inch tree is 

 60 years old; the average 8 inch tree is 120 years old, and the average 12 inch 

 spruce tree is 150 years old. This is in nature's forest undirected by man. 

 Human intelligence, by the proper manipulation of conditions in the forest, 

 could reduce the time required to make a merchantable tree. That is the 

 function of a forester. By planting the trees in old fields he could shorten the 

 period to a much greater extent. 



Now, with regard to the growth of the forest itself. Such studies as have 

 been made are not encouraging. It has been found, for example, on areas in 

 the mixed softwood-hardwood type, that have been cut over several times, 

 spruce wood is accumulating at a much slower rate than it has been cut. In 

 some cases as much spruce has been cut in the past 40 years as it took nature 

 250 years to produce. In other words, the annual growth in the past 40 years 

 has been only one sixth as great as the harvest. It has been stated that if a 

 single spruce tree 8 inches in diameter died on the average acre each 3'ear, the 

 loss in wood volume thus ensuing would offset the average annual growth on 

 certain cut-over pulpwood lands in Quebec. The Provincial Forester of Onta- 

 rio estimates that the annual growth on the average acre of white pine forest 

 in that Province has been onlj- 15 board feet per year for the past 100 years. 



