Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920 



n 



PLAIN STATEMENTS ON CANADA'S FORESTS 



By Frank J. D. Barnjum, Annapolis Royal, N.S. 



A Discussion of the Limitations of the Nation'; 



Wood Supply With a Suggestion 



as to Remedies. 



(Mr. 

 business 



Barnjum, a 

 man of Nova 



practical and successful 

 Scotia, orvner of the lar- 



lizes that it is only necessary to have an average 

 of ore ordinary sized tree per acre per year 

 gest timber limits in his province, began his studies blown down, how easy it is to see that the an- 

 of timberlands and the Tvood supply twenty-eight nual growth is wiped out by this one process of 

 years ago when he made his first purchase of timber destruction. I have seen thousands of acres laid 



areas in Maine. He moved to Nova Scotia where 

 for twenty years he has been extensively inter^■d•^d 

 in timber properties. — Editor, Canadian Forestry 

 Journal.) 



The wood resources of Canada have been so 

 grossly exaggerated that very few are aware 

 how meagre our supply of available wood really 

 is. I have spent a large portion of the past 

 few years in a personal investigation of the 

 Canadian situation, the results of which are so 

 alarming that I have refrained from publishing 

 my findings. 



The theory of an annual growth that has 

 been indulged in so freely in the past has simply 

 become a popular delusion. There is, of course, 

 a gross growth, and a net growth under some 

 conditions, but to offset this the annual wastage 

 by fire, wind, insects and fungi, taking the 

 country as a whole, far over-runs the gross 

 growth. Consequently we are simply consum- 

 ing our capital year after year. 



If anyone has any question as to the enor- 

 mous amount of this wastage, let him explore 

 the woods of Ontario, Quebec and New Bruns- 

 wick, where one can travel day after day and 

 >ee nearly everywhere the vast destruction 

 c.iused by the spruce bud worm alone. There 

 are millions of acres in these provinces where 

 over fifty per cent of the standing pulpwood 

 has been completely destroyed. 



To emphasize further this question of growth, 

 il is only necessary to refer to the recent reports 

 (in the growth in some sections of Quebec, 

 wl.ich show only about 30 board feet per acre, 

 meaning about one 6-inch tree per acre per 

 year. It has never been disputed that there 

 IS no actual accretion in virgin timber, but the 

 mortality more than offsets all growth. Fur- 

 thermore, even in cut-over land when one rea- 



flat by wind, not only in cut-over lands but also 

 in so-called virgin stands. So much for wind. 

 Now with regard to the losses from forest 

 fires, the spruce bud worm, borers and fungi. 

 The figures are so appalling that I dare not 

 commit the result of my findings to print, but 

 these losses are so enormous that no one who 

 IS sincere will attempt to deny that they far 

 over-balance any annual growth that .here is 

 in Canada or the United States. Cut out this 

 mythical annual growth theory and what are 

 we doing? As I said befor 

 using our capital. 



)re, we are simply 



WHAT IS AN.\L'AL GROWTH? 



One often sees the statement in print that we 

 are "using more than three times our annual 

 growth," while in fact, as previously stated, 

 there is no annual growth to use, for the reason 

 that enemies of the forest, cited above, destroy 

 much more than the growth. 



The timberland owner has the satisfaction of 

 knowing that even if he has lost one-half of his 

 standing timber, by the ravages of the spruce 

 bud worm, still what he has left is worth double 

 the previous price per cord, as the destruction 

 is country wide, and the consequently diminished 

 supply will necessarily create an immediate and 

 substantial advance in land and stumpage 

 prices. 



If some of the paper mills of the United Slates 

 had not gone so far afield for their wood last 

 year by invading the more remote sections of 

 Ontario and Quebec, where the freight alone 

 amounted to $16.00 or more j^er cord and ac- 

 cepted wood down to a diameter limit of one 

 and one-half to two inches, they would be short 

 of wood to-dav. 



