The Decline of the Square Timber Trade. 



5S 



flrnt tim(>, this wood beiiiK left with a 

 wano of from thre« to hix inrheti on the 

 cornerH, bo nvoiiliii); the oxcefiHivo waste of 

 wood reHultiiiK from howiit); the timber 

 exactly Hquar«». I'rcviouH to this, the tim- 

 ber WHH Hquaro and of \i\x^Vi nvpru){0, 

 beautifully howii by the lumbermen in the 

 woo(1h; but board (waney) pine, that in, 

 short logs of large girth, were sent down 



Year. 



1861.. 

 1909. , 



S(|uare pine. 

 15,731, ()()() f.f. 

 66,200 c.f. 



While the decline in the quantity of 

 square and waney pine made for the Que- 

 bec market was to some extent duo to the 

 scarcity of suitable trees to manufacture 

 into timber, it wan in a far greater degree 

 attributable to the increase in the deal 

 and board trade. Gradually the produce 

 of the sawmill took the place, for export, 

 of timber in the hewn log. 



Before leaving this point, I would ob- 

 serve that in the Ottawa region a large 

 proportion of the trees are suitable to 

 make deal logs, but would not be large 

 enough to be made into waney board pine. 

 This is cxemplifled by the smallness of the 

 square pine that was latterly taken down 

 from Ottawa. In former days square i>ine 

 was made seventy, eighty and even one 

 hundred feet cube average; lately it was 

 witii difficulty that forty feet average 

 cube was procurable in square pine, and 

 the waney board pine is decreasing in 

 girth annually. Formerly, twenty inches 

 and over, average cube, was easily had as 

 late as 15)04, 17 inch average was as large 

 as most manufacturers would undertake 

 to supply, and they frequently fell below 

 this average on delivery at Quebec. 



As deals took the place of timber, so 

 lumber is gradually supplanting deals for 

 export. The sawn white i)ine exported is 

 manufacoured by Ottawa valley an<l west- 

 ern mills, an»l shipped from Montreal as 

 being nearer the point of production. 



This change from the manufat'ture of 

 timber hewed square in the woods to the 

 bringing of it to the mills in the form of 

 round logs has eflfected a very important 

 saving of the very best material, formerly 

 left in the woods in the form of chips out 

 in the process of scjuaring the trees, which 

 were useless for any purpose except that 

 of spreading the vast forest fires that 

 have destroyed many times more timber 

 % than ever was cut with the axe. 



The change from sailing vessels to 

 steamer for ocean carriage has necessarily 

 affected Quebec as a shii>ping port for 

 wood goods, as steamers charge no more 

 on freight from Montreal than from Que- 

 bec, and as a matter of fact prefer the 

 first-named port as being under more fav- 

 orable conditions. Montreal also has the 

 advantage of being nearer most of the 

 mills that now produce pine lumber and 



the drives with the othi>r timber, and soon 

 found their way into the mnrkvt. Their 

 being rut from the lower part of the tre« 

 accounted for the waney character of the 

 logs, but the quality of the timber was 

 excellent. It gradually alnwHit altogether 

 supplanted square pine. To illuiitrate this 

 point, I beg to submit the following com- 

 parison: 



Waney pine. Total. 



6,73.'5,000 c.f 22,406,000 c.f. 



699,360 c.f 765,560 c.f. 



deals, as they are generally west of it, 

 and the freight by barge or rail is mneb 

 less than to Quebec. 



Thus the export business in wood has 

 changed from hewn timber made with the 

 axe and floated down to Quebec in rafts 

 (with a limited proportion of deals sawn 

 at Quebec mills or floated to Quebec from 

 Ilawkesbury or Chelsea on the (iatineau) 

 to n small ex)>ort of timber from Quebec 

 (where hewn timber can best be handled, 

 on account of the facilities given by the 

 tides), and an export of sawn lumber, in- 

 eluding some deals, from Montreal. A 

 considerable proportion of the reduced 

 quantity of timber now ship|ie«l cornea 

 from the I'nited States, which is the 

 source of all the oak exported and most of 

 the elm. The supply of oak suitable for 

 export is exhausted in Canada and the 

 supply of elm is rapidly tending in that 

 direction. Another change is that of 

 shipping by steamer instead of by sailing 

 ship. These two factors account for the 

 loss of the squared timber trade by Que- 

 bec and Levis, which was inevitable, but, 

 some authorities say, was acceleratefl by 

 the restrictions imposed and the wagea 

 exacted by the Quebec ship labourers. 



Before leaving this subject, it may be 

 interesting to say a few words about the 

 price the lumberman receive<l at Quebec 

 for his timber. T have no record at hand 

 earlier than of the year 1S41. I wat once 

 shown by an old lumber merchant, the set- 

 tlement of account between a Quebec 

 merchant and him.self, in which he waa 

 creditetl with a raft of square pine, seventy 

 cubic feet average, at 3d. (6c.) per foot. 



Mentioning this to another old lumber- 

 man, he said it was perfectly correct, for 

 he recalled that he had told the lady, whom 

 he afterwards married, that he could not 

 afford to marry till timber was worth 4'.jd, 

 (9c.) a foot. He was marritv] in 1S46. 



In recent years, waney timber H-inch 

 average has brought as much as SO centa 

 j)er cubic foot and square pine .30 to 40 

 feet average, 40 to ."JO cents |)er foot, a 

 vast advance from the 6e. of 1841 or the 

 9c. of 1846. 



Doubtless the great prices paid for tim- 

 ber limits, higher timber dues levied by 

 the provincial governments and the grow- 

 ing scarcity of large timber, all account 



