Canadian Forestry Journal, Ma^, 1919 



215 



At the junction of the Peace and Srnoky Rivers, Athabasca Country. 



remain. Investigations indicate that white pine 

 does not reproduce itself when removed from 

 the ordmary mixed forest. The young seedhngs 

 require Hght and the dense thickets that spring 

 up after logging choke and finally kill the little 

 trees. 



Certam areas m the old pineries, that is, where 

 the trees were in pure stand when cut, are un- 

 doubtedly regenerating themselves with pine, 

 but we don't know how extensive such areas 

 are. It is very important that we should know, 

 but we don't know. We need much more in- 

 vestigation of the matter, but so far as the in- 

 vestigations have gone, they indicate that we 

 have not accomplished the first object of forestry 

 practice in respect to white pine, that is, we 

 have not kept the capital stock represented by 

 T/hite pine trees unimpaired and continuously 

 productive. 



A Two-Thirds Reduction. 



For the past two summers I have been in- 

 vestigating for the Commission of Conservation 

 at Ottawa, the regeneration of spruce and bal- 

 sam on cut-over unburned pulpwood lands in 

 the Province of Quebec. I cannot here go into 

 the details of my results, but I would like to 

 tell you what we found on a certain representa- 

 tive area of 97 acres which had been severely 

 culled. Twenty-six spruce trees per acre had 

 been removed. We counted all the young trees 

 on those 97 acres and determined their death 

 rate. We found when they reach merchantable 

 size there will be only 7 spruce trees per acre 



to take the place of the 26 spruce trees removed 

 by t'le logging operations, or, in other words, 

 t!:ere will be one-third as many spruce trees in 

 the future forest as in the virgin forest. 



We don't know yet whether this area is re- 

 presentative of all the cut-over balsam lands in 

 Eastern Canada. It is very important that we 

 should know. If it is representative, then it 

 will be very evident to you as business men that 

 the forest capital stock represented by spruce 

 trees has not been maintained unimpaired and 

 continuously productive. Therefore, we have 

 not accomplished the primary object of forestry 

 practice in respect to spruce. 



Balsam in Quebec. 



Balsam trees at the rate of 32 per acre had 

 been cut from these same 97 acres. Following 

 the same line of investigation as with the spruce. 

 we found that in the next crop there will be 12 

 trees per acre where 32 have been taken away, 

 or, in other words, there will be a little more 

 than a third as many balsam trees in the future 

 forest as were in the virgin forest. .\or is this 

 the whole story. Our investigations indicate 

 that 7 of those 12 balsam will be so badly dam- 

 aged by heart rot as to be unfit for pulpwood: 

 so the final result will probably be 5 pulpv/ood 

 bearing balsam trees where 32 were taken away. 



We don't know yet whether this area is re- 

 presentative of all the cut-over balsam lands in 

 Eastern Canada. It is very evident that we 

 should know. If it is representative, then it is 

 no longer necessary for me to bring to you any 



