388 



Canadian Forestry Journal, October, 1919 



that the bulk of the original supplies of yellow 

 pine in the south will be exhausted in ten years 

 and that within the next five to seven years 

 more than 3,000 manufactuing plants will go 

 out of existence Already paper manufacturers 

 are embarrassed for supplies. Hundreds of 

 communities are suffering because the resource 

 supporting their chief industry has been ex- 

 hausted. Sawmills and woodworking estab- 

 lishments close, subsidiary interests can no 

 longer exist, the population moves away, farms 

 are abandoned, roads and other public improve- 

 ments deteriorate, and whole townships and 

 even counties are impoverished." 

 Canada's Advantage. 



It must, of course, be recognized that the 

 situation in the United States is fundamentally 

 different from that in Canada, in that the great 

 bulk of the timber in the former country is on 

 lands held in private ownership and therefore 

 not thus far subject to restrictions as to cutting 

 methods, while in Canada, all but a compara- 

 tively small proportion of the forests are on 

 Crown lands, and are therefore subject to such 

 cutting regulations as may be prescribed by 

 governmental authority. 



In this lies the hope of the future for Canada, 

 since forestry is, as a general rule, primarily a 

 matter for governments rather than for in- 

 dividuals or even corporations. Since, how- 

 ever, pulpwood can be grown in a much shorter 

 period of time than saw-timber, progressive 

 pulp and paper companies are already consid- 

 ering it to be good business to prepare for the 

 systematic growing of at least a portion of 

 their necessary supplies for the future and are 

 proceeding accordingly. This, by the way, is 

 indisputable evidence that the shortage of pulp- 

 wood supplies over considerable areas in east- 

 ern Canada is already upon us, were such ad- 

 ditional evidence required. 



It certainly requires no great powers of ob- 

 servation to determine that in eastern Canada, 

 for example, are enormous areas of cut-over 

 lands which are in an absolute or relatively 

 unproductive condition. These lands are, of 

 course, generally speaking, the most accessible 

 to existing transportation, where stumpage 

 values would be highest and where the exist- 

 ence of a permanent supply of timber would be 

 of the greatest value to all concerned. 



The Search for Logs. 



Studies made by the Commission of Conser- 

 vation, in co-operation with the Laurentide, 

 Riordon, and Abitibi pulp and paper companies. 



and in collaboration with the Provincial Forest 

 Services of Quebec and New Brunswick show 

 conclusively that the productiveness of the for- 

 est is not satisfactorily maintained by present 

 methods of cutting. 



Companies are continually having to go 

 farther and farther afield to secure necessary 

 timber supplies, and the cut-over lands they 

 leave behind are, for the most part, not left 

 in a condition that promises the possibility of 

 a second cut within any reasonable length of 

 time. 



If a reasonably satisfactory forest stand. is 

 to be produced on lands to be cut over in the 

 future, particularly in the mixed forests, some 

 way must be found by which it will be possible 

 to so modify present methods of exploitation 

 as to favor the reproduction of the coniferous 

 species. Protection from destruction by fire is 

 not sufficient, though this is of the first im- 

 portance, and IS a matter in which great pro- 

 gress has been made of late years. Millions of 

 dollars of damage is being done by the spruce 

 budworm and other insects in the pulpwood 

 forests of eastern Canada. The loss of balsam 

 is particularly severe, the spruce suffering less, 

 though still seriously. The withdrawal from 

 prospective utilization of the large volumes of 

 timber so destroyed only serves to make more 

 urgent the necessity for recuperative measures. 



One aspect of the problem involves utiliza- 

 tion of the hardwood species, at present com- 

 paratively valueless, particularly on the more 

 remote limits, but whose increased spread and 

 growth IS consistently favored through the con- 

 tinuous removal of the conifers. Our mixed 

 pulpwood forests are rapidly being turned into 

 hardwood forests as a result of this process. The 

 solution of the problem involves finding some 

 method by which the hardwoods can be trans- 

 ported to market and there utilized. Heavy 

 loss from sinkage in stream-driving is the 

 greatest difficulty, though experiments by the 

 Riordon and other companies show that hard- 

 wood logs can be driven successfully up to 90 

 miles. Presumably this may be increased if 

 some feasible method of first partially drying 

 out the logs can be demonstrated. Possibly, 

 also, the use of tractors for log-hauling may 

 assist in solving the problem. New railway 

 construction will assist in some cases. 

 The Hardwood Problem. 



At any rate, pulp and paper companies must 

 find some means of transporting and utilizing 

 their hardwoods if they expect to retain their 

 mixed forest lands in a productive condition. 



