166 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1919 



TIMBER'S HORN OF PLENTY 



The following protest was addressed to the 

 Literary Digest, by Dr. E. B. Fernow, Dean of 

 the Facuhy of Forestry, University of Toronto: 



"Under the above caption you are briefing in 

 your issue of February 15, on page 24, from 

 the "Hardwood Record," an article which is 

 extremely mischievous in throwing cold water 

 on the efforts of those who preach conservation 

 of our resources. The article is mischievous by 

 what it implies rather than what it states and is 

 the more mischievous because it is partially 

 true, but only very partially. 



The writer in the "Record" fails to mention 

 that to find the necessary amount of walnut for 

 gunstocks a close hunt in fence corners and 

 ornamental grounds was necessary, and that at 

 the same time substitutes were assidiously 

 sought for and used. 



' He fails to mention that the cut of white pine 

 has dwindled from over eight billion feet to less 

 than three billion, and the price for the best 

 grades has more than quadrupled in a short time 

 — a sure sign of the exhaustion of supplies; and 

 we could explain why the whole white pine busi- 

 ness has not yet gone entirely out of existence. 

 The guessers were not so wrong after all. 



But most interesting is the explanation of con- 

 ditions in Frence, which may allow the surprise 

 of the writer in the "Record" at finding in that 

 country timber enough to keep the Canadian and 

 American forestry battalions busy. 



There was, of course, nothing surprising or 

 unknown to the French regarding their timber 

 resources, and a country which imports annually 

 from thirty to forty million dollars' worth of lum- 

 ber is not likely to be overstocked with timber. 

 As a matter of fact, of the 23 million acres of 

 forest in France only 25 per cent is what is 

 called timber forest, the rest is coppice or sprout 

 forest, good for fuel and small dimension, though 



about one-half of this contains dimension tim- 

 ber. Now, the bulk of the timber forest is in 

 Government hands, and the Government prac- 

 tices what is called a "sustained yield" manage- 

 ment -a management based on continuous 

 crops. That requires the existence of stands 

 of all ages, so that each year a stand of the pro- 

 per age, mature timber, say, 100 to 120 years 

 old, comes to be cut. The cautious French, in 

 addition, are conservative and leave 25 per cent 

 of what they would be entitled to cut under 

 this management as a reserve against an evil 

 day, such as fires, insects, windfalls or perhaps 

 war may bring. It is this reserve that has fallen 

 under American and Canadian axes, and in ad- 

 dition, the older age classes below the 100 or 

 120 years, perhaps down to 80 or even 60 years, 

 which can be made useful. In a special case, in 

 which the mill run by one of our professors in 

 the forestry battalion, he ascertained that they 

 were anticipating the cut of 20 years; the sus- 

 tained yield management is badly crippled in all 

 French forests by these anticipated harvests and 

 the expectation that home supplies will suffice 

 for reconstruction purposes is probably a futile 

 guess. 



It is, however, something better than a guess 

 because based upon a tolerably close canvass of 

 the Department of Commerce that the visible 

 supply of saw timber in the United States could 

 not keep up the present cut for more than 60 

 to 80 years, if present use and abuse continues, 

 and Canada could not lengthen the period for 

 more than a decade. 



To reduce this capital "If" is the objective 

 of the conservationist. 



While our propagandists have cried "Wolf!" 

 some times apparently prematurely, the wolf is 

 coming, nevertheless." 



(Signed) E. B. FERNOW. 



OVERCOMING THE FRENCH SAND DUNES 



The cost of "fixing" the sand dunes of France, 

 by planting tree seed, is given by Brigadier- 

 General J. B. White, D.S.O., Montreal, as 

 follows : 



Aggregate cost of "fixing" a hectare (2.47 

 acres) of dunes: 



Cutting 1 ,400 faggots 11.20 francs 



Making the faggots into panels__ 11.20 



Transport of faggots I '/^ miles__ 56.00 francs 



Placing faggots in position 14.00 



Supervision 10.00 



One-half hectolitre of pine seed__ 10.00 



Five kilograms of genet 2.50 



Planting and cultivating 4.60 



Total 119.50 



