Lumber, Lath, Shingle and Square Timber 

 Statistics for 19 J2. 



New Bulletin of Forestry Branch, Ottawa Shows Great Decrease 



in Production. 



The most noteworthy fact brought to 

 light by this new bulletin on the lumber 

 prothu'tion of Canada was the 10.7 per cent, 

 ilecreafe in cut in 1912 as compared with 

 that of 1011. All provinces- except Saskat- 

 chewan showed a substantial falling off in 

 production and, although only 2,558 firms 

 operating saw mills reported in 1912 as 

 against 2,871 in 1911, yet, as the bulletin 

 points out, it was mostly small mills which 

 failed to report, and the fact that mof^t of 

 the larger mills reported a decrea^^^e in their 

 output, in<licates that the decrease in pro- 

 duction actually took place and was not a 

 result of incomplete returns. 



The total value of the lumber, laths, 

 {•hingles and square timber produced in Can- 

 ada in 1911 was $76,540,897, the amount 

 of each being as follows: — 



Lumber . . 4,389,723,000 ft. b.m . . $69,475,784 

 Shingles .1,578,343,000 pieces. . . 3,175,319 

 Laths ... 899,016,000 pieces.. . 2,064,622 

 Sq. timber 65,906 tons 1,825,154 



Ontario still leads the provinces jn lum- 

 ber production, cutting 31.6 per cent, of 

 the total. Britii-h Columbia makes a close 

 second, cutting 29.9 per cent, of the total, 

 and as the percentage of production in this 

 latter province is increasing while that of 

 Ontario is falling off, it is likely that the 

 position of these two provinces will be seen 

 to be reversed when the 1913 figures are 

 available. 



For the last five years the four principal 

 species in order of importance have been 

 spruce, white pine, Douglas fir, and hemlock, 

 but the production of white pine has re- 

 mained about stationary during this period 

 and is now on the decrease, whereas the pro- 

 duction of the other three species has enor- 

 mously increased, especially spruce, which 

 now makes up a third of the total cut of 

 lumber, in spite of the fact that it also is 

 the principal Avood used in the manufacture 

 of pulp, making up 78.2 per cent, of the 

 total amount of pulpwood. The huge 

 amount of spruce now being cut for pulp- 



BIRCH 



\0O.26T 





BA'SSWOOO 



/tS/i - \i 306 

 /'0/»/>1/T -7.989 

 »tL OTHCRS 



Production by species 1912 of himber, lath, shingles and square timber 

 with quantities in thousands of feet. 

 123 



