158 



Canadian Forestry Journal 



cedar. It is also a very beautiful 

 wood. Without doubt it is the com- 

 ing canoe and boat builders' wood 

 of the continent. 



Markets and Transportation. 



But forests, no matter how magni- 

 ficent, must await the development 

 of markets and of transportation 

 facilities before a great lumber in- 

 dustry may arise. British Columbia 

 has been waiting in this sense for 

 many centuries, but her day has 

 now come. The lumber consumption 

 of the world is rapidly decimating 

 its resources in standing timber. 

 North America, east of the mount- 

 ains, is by far the greater lumber 

 market, consuming, in fact, more 

 than all the rest of the world com- 

 bined. Nor has this enormous de- 

 mand shown any tendency to de- 

 crease with advancing prices; on the 

 contrary, it has more than kept pace 

 witli the increase in population, and 

 the latest statistics indicate a per 

 capita consumption in North Amer- 

 ica of about four hundred cubic feet 

 of wood, including five hundred feet 

 board measure of sawn lumber. On 

 the other hand, the diminishing of 

 the forest resources of Eastern Am- 

 erica has reached an acute stage. 

 Three fourths of the remaining for- 

 est resources of the continent lie 

 wes t of the Rockies, while nine 

 tenths of the markets lie to the east. 



So much for the vast and grow- 

 ing hunger for wood products in the 

 East and the wonderful forest re- 

 sources of the West. A word as to 

 transportation developments. Al- 

 ready the products of the British 

 Columbia forests — notwithstanding 

 our limited rail facilities and a 

 freight cost of all the way to $25 per 

 M — reach every important market. 

 With the advent in the near future 

 of the Grand Trunk Pacific, the 

 Canadian Northern and other pro- 

 jected railways, our rail facilities 

 will be at least trebled and perhaps 

 more than quadrupled, while a verit- 

 able revolution will be wrought by 

 the completion in 1914 of the Pan- 



ama canal. The canal will reduce 

 the distance from Vancouver to New 

 York by water from nearly fourteen 

 thousand miles to less than six thou- 

 sand miles. It will also convert it 

 from a sailing to a steam route, 

 cheap coaling being available, thus 

 reducing the time in transit, which 

 is now from four to seven months, 

 to less than thirty days, with a cor- 

 responding cut in interest and a still 

 larger cut in insurance cost. More 

 important still, perhaps, it will en- 

 able Eastern builders andl other 

 lumber users to have orders for 

 special purposes shipped by water 

 with a much greater certainty of 

 prompt delivery than can be hoped 

 for by rail. Many hope to see the 

 present freight rates of from $12 to 

 $16 per M around Cape Horn cut in 

 half when the canal is opened. A 

 saving of one fourth of the present 

 rates would revolutionize the lumber 

 industry of the British Columbia 

 coast. 



Opportunities for Investment. 



The opportunities presented by 

 present conditions in the develop- 

 ment of the British Columbia lum- 

 ber industry are such as should in- 

 terest (1) the large investor who de- 

 sires a field for investment, giving 

 large returns with small risks; (2) 

 the investor of moderate means who 

 wishes to condxict a business which 

 will give profitable employment for 

 liis capital and, at the same time, 

 ample scope for his own activities ; 

 andl (3) the man of brains and en- 

 ergy who has no financial backing, 

 l)ut who has a lot of capital in the 

 way of confidence in himself and in 

 the country. 



For the large investor British Co- 

 lumbia tiraberlands present at the 

 present time one of the safest and 

 most profitable fields. British Co- 

 lumbia tidewater timberlands are 

 unusually safe in regard to the only 

 serious risk, the fire hazard. This 

 is diie to the heavy rainfall, rang- 

 ing from sixty-four to one hundred 

 and twenty inches annually, and the 



