Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1919 



31 



Spruce Hard to Reach. 



In the second place, the spruce forests of the 

 provinces are situated chiefly in the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands and on the Northern mainland 

 coast, several hundred miles from established 

 lumber operations. The timber was largely 

 owned privately, and cutting rights had to be 

 secured, logging machinery, mills and labour 

 had to be moved to these remote parts, and 

 transportation facilities for logs, lumber and 

 supplies established. 



In order to secure the aeroplane material with 

 as little delay as possible, the logging had to be 

 done on a selective basis, only the clear straight 

 grained spruce logs being cut. This naturally 

 reduced the camp output of logs; but it in- 

 creased the production of aeroplane material, as 

 no time was wasted on inferior spruce or on the 

 other species of timber. 



When the operations commenced there were 

 on the Queen Charlotte Islands three small saw- 

 mills at Massett Inlet and on the mainland pulp 

 at Ocean Falls and Swanson Bay and a small 

 sawmill at Georgetown, near Prince Rupert. The 

 sawmills on Masset Inlet were put into commis- 

 sion and two new mills built. New plants were 

 also constructed at Prince Rupert and Skeena 

 City. Approximately three thousand men were 

 employed on the work in the northern spruce 

 forests. 



The mainland mills were supplied largely with 

 logs from the Queen Charlotte Islands. In order 

 to transport the logs across Hecate Straits it was 

 necessary to make them up into compact Davis 

 rafts. 



The placing of all contracts for logs and lum- 

 ber was handled by the Imperial Munitions 

 Board, under Major Austin C. Taylor, Director 

 of the Department of Aeronautical Supplies.. 

 The inspection of the lumber was done by the 

 Aeronautical Inspection Department of the 

 Imperial Ministry of Munitions, under Roland C. 

 Craig, District Inspector. Forty examiners were 

 employed in this department, and every piece of 

 lumber was carefully inspected before being 

 stamped for shipment. The requirements for 

 aeroplane lumber are rigid. On the average it 

 was possible to secure a recovery only of 20 per 

 cent, from the selected logs. 



During the thirteen months that operations 

 were conducted the output was increased from 

 100,000 feet per month to 6,500,000 feet per 

 month, and if the war had continued an even 

 larger supply would have been secured. 



Solid Trains of Lumber. 



The lumber from the Queen Charlotte Islands 

 and the northern mills was loaded on barges and 

 towed to Prince Rupert, where the Grand 

 Trunk Pacific Railway installed several cranes 

 which transferred it to the cars. It was not an 

 uncommon thing for solid trains of aeroplane 

 lumber to be despatched from Prince Rupert. 

 Owing to the urgency of the demand for this 

 material it received preference over all other 

 freight on both the railways and ships. 



The Imperial authorities have tried all the 

 known kinds of wood for aircraft and have 

 found that Sitka spruce is far superior to any 

 other. The quality of spruce growing in North- 

 ern British Columbia is undoubtedly the very 

 best that can be secured. It is a well-established 

 botanical fact that the farther north any plant 

 can be grown successfully the better the quality, 

 and this seems to be borne out in the case of 

 Sitka spruce. 



No Large Supplies Left. 



Though the survey of the forest resources 

 made by Roland D. Craig for the Commission 

 of Conservation shows the amount of Sitka 

 spruce as being estimated at fourteen billion 

 feet, only a small proportion of this is suitable 

 for aircraft construction; and besides, a large 

 proportion of the aggregate is so scattered and 

 mixed with other species that it cannot be logged 

 separately on a commercial basis. In the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, however, there are large areas 

 where the spruce exceeds thirty-five per cent, of 

 the stand, and it is from these forests that the 

 bulk of the output has been secured. It is esti- 

 mated that the continuation of the cutting on a 

 war basis would have practically exhausted the 

 supply which could be secured at a reasonable 

 expense of money and effort. 



In view of this fact an effort should be made 

 to conserve the remaining supplies of this timber. 

 It cannot be replaced in centuries and it is 

 doubtful if the succeeding growth will ever 

 attain the same quality as this virgin spruce. 



RANDOM 



In Missouri the university forestry department 

 is urging the farmers to raise walnut, which is 

 much bettor than what the socialists in North 

 Dakota are urging them to raise. 



— American Lumberman. 



