176 FORESTRY ALMANAC 



of corporations or individuals. One-quarter of the forest area is 

 constituted as reserves and dedicated to timber production. This dis- 

 tribution of land ownership, however, is not the measure of ownership 

 of timber resources. The State owns about 7^2 billion cubic 

 feet of saw-timber of merchantable age, while private interests, 

 through leases, licenses or grants, hold about three times that amount. 

 Approximately the same proportion of ownership exists over the 

 resource of pulpwood, poles and piling material. The railways have 

 considerable holdings, a condition which gives the Board of Railway 

 Commissioners a certain forestry responsibility and authority. 



In the maritime provinces of Canada there are found mixed 

 forests, with birch, maple and beech predominating among the hard- 

 woods and hemlock and red spruce being the most important soft- 

 woods. In the St. Lawrence Valley is found a southern hardwood 

 growth of considerable variety including good stands of hickory, oak, 

 elm, chestnut, walnut and other species. Only occasional conifers are 

 found in this section, but on the plateau to the north there is a mixed 

 coniferous and hardwood forest growth, hemlock being the prevailing 

 softwood since most of the pine has been logged off. 



Further to the north, spruce and fir predominate in a forest growth 

 that has been but little explored and which represents a more or less 

 inaccessible resource at present. The northern Rocky Mountain 

 section supports an inferior growth of lodgepole pine, merging into 

 forest of white pine, western larch, yellow pine and silver fir in the 

 mountain section of southern British Columbia. On the coast and 

 including Vancouver, are found fine growths of Douglas fir, red 

 cedar and hemlock, while further north the coastal growth becomes 

 western hemlock, yellow cedar and Sitka spruce. 



Estimates place the annual cut of Canada's forests at about two 

 and one-half billion cubic feet a year. No reliable information is 

 available for the increment to the forest resources through annual 

 growth, although it is set at below the yearly cut. Canada exports 

 some three billion board feet a year, with the United States taking 

 fully two-thirds of this export. 



The Dominion Government now follows a policy of retaining 

 title to all forest lands. Licenses are granted for the cutting of 

 timber for them, stipulating that the timber must be manufactured 

 before it is exported. 



