RUBBER 277 



experiments, Oil Cake for feeding cattle has been made from 

 them. 



We cannot help feeling a deep debt of gratitude to those 

 who introduced the tree into our empire and enabled us to 

 be self-supporting in such a valuable commodity. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

 TIMBER 



Canada has an area of more than three and a half million 

 square miles, i.e. it is a little smaller than Europe and a little 

 larger than the United States. Stretching right across the 

 Continent for some three thousand miles, from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, are the great forests, having a width from north 

 to south of two hundred or three hundred miles. The trees 

 in them are mostly spruces and larches, but, to the south of 

 these conifers, in Eastern Canada, is a great belt of deciduous 

 trees, containing many different species, one of the most 

 characteristic being the sugar-maple, whose red and yellow 

 leaves make the Canadian woods in autumn a wonderland of 

 beauty. In British Columbia, on the western slopes of the 

 mountains facing the sea, the moist, equable climate favours 

 the growth of such giants as the Douglas firs and cedars. 



The Commissioners say that these forests ' undoubtedly 

 form one of the most valuable assets of the empire '. The 

 number of acres covered with timber that can be sawn up 

 and sold is estimated at 250 million, and besides this there are 

 quantities which are useful for making wood-pulp and for 

 providing fuel and for various other purposes. Quebec has 

 100 million acres of forest land, and next in order come 

 Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and 

 last of all Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. 



As one travels through these endless forests for weeks and 

 weeks, and sees, day by day, countless thousands of beautiful 

 trees, it is almost impossible to resist the conclusion that 



