28 



Canadian Forcstr}) Journal, January, 1920 



In some of the wild estimates of our supply 

 of standing timber made in the past, they have 

 simply taken the map of Canada, determmed 

 the number of square miles, and arbitrarily 

 figured so many cords per acre. Now as log- 

 ging by aeroplane has not been perfected as yet, 

 there are only two ways you can get out wood, 

 namely, by river or railroad. About all the 

 more important rivers of Canada have been 

 logged on and driven, from the very ca.iiest 

 days. Many of them have been practically 

 stripped or cut out, while others are bemg 

 operated pretty well back to their head-waters, 

 so far remote that it takes two years or more 

 to drive logs to the mills. 



In the case of the railroads the conditions is 

 pretty much the same, with the exception of, 

 possibly, the Transcontinental, but inasmuch as 

 this road was built beyond the height of land, 

 there is very little wood available north of this 

 road, as the rivers all drain away from it to- 

 wards Hudson Bay. This leaves only the ter- 

 ritory that lies south of the railroad, but as 

 sawmills are springing up along this line, hke 

 mushrooms over night, and as fire is taking 

 a heavy toll in this section, the paper mills will 

 derive only a small supply from this source. 

 Every time a railroad is built in a wooded coun- 

 try, more wood is burned up than is hauled out. 

 When talk is made about obtaining pulpwood 

 from the cold northern sections that have not 

 been opened up, where it takes 150 years to 

 grow a four-inch tree, where the snow falls to 

 a depth of 15 feet, and the thermometer regis- 

 ters 50 below ero, it will be only when pulp- 

 wood reaches a price more than $75.00 per 

 cord. We hear Alaska suggested as a possible 

 field for the making of paper, but all of the 

 above handicaps apply to this section, except 

 along the coast, as well as the fact that it is 

 4,000 miles distant from the large paper con- 

 suming market. 



All anyone needs to know is that m the 

 United States more than 5,500,000 cords of 

 wood are used annually for pulp alone, in order 

 to realize that this appalling shrinkage in our 

 capital stock of standing timber must necessar- 

 ily too soolf wipe out the remaining supply. 



WOODPILE 9,000 MILES LONG. 



I want the reader to pause a moment when 

 he reads this paragraph, five million five hundred 

 thousand cords— not feet, but cords, used every 

 year in the United States for pulp, and princip- 

 ally in the Eastern and Middle States. Few can 

 realize just what this really represents, but to 

 try and make this comprehensible, it means a 



solid pile of four foot wood, twelve feet high 

 reaching clear across the continent, or a pile 

 four feet high, nine thousand miles long, and 

 yet we may travel for days on the railroads 

 and hardly see a spruce tree. Personally, I 

 should not want to take the contract to furnish 

 this amount for even one year, and where is it 

 to come from after the next ten years? 



Imagination can hardly grasp the real sig- 

 nificance of the terrifymg estimate of the an- 

 nual consumption of all lumber in the United 

 States alone, namely 244 million cords. This 

 estimate of consumption is doubtless conserva- 

 tive, as it is impossible for the government to ob- 

 tain complete reports of all actual production. 



In addition to this enormous amount that is 

 being cut, fire is taking a terrible toll as well. 

 Over a billion feet of lumber was destroyed this 

 present year in just one state -Montana. This 

 means two million cords, or nearly half the en- 

 tire amount consumed for pulp in one year, de- 

 stroyed by the fire fiend in one state. Last year 

 the same thing happened in Minnesota, and this 

 same thing has been going on since this country 

 was first settled and to such an extent that 75 

 per cent of the original stand of timber has been 

 destroyed by this same cause, and yet some 

 authorities will still talk of an annual growth. 



It is a curious fact that some of the coldest 

 sections are the most prone to fire, such as 

 Newfoundland, British Columbia, Northern On- 

 tario, Northern Quebec, Minnesota, Alaska, etc. 

 These fire zones are just as well defined as land 

 and water. 



PAPER MILL APPETITES. 



In many of the estimates that have been made 

 as to the length of time our standing timber 

 will last, the important question of the increase 

 in consumption is quite overlooked, and as 

 showing what an important factor this is, I will 

 simply cite a five-year period in the St. Maurice 

 Valley, where the increase amounted to 300 

 per cent, or at the rate of 40 per cent per year. 



Thus far I have largely discussed principally 

 the pulpwood consumption, and yet when you 

 add to this the extraordinary demand we have 

 in sight for lumber for new construction the 

 world over, it simply adds to the danger that is 

 facing this country from a premature exhaustion 

 of a supply of raw material for our magnificent 

 paper mills, which to-day are the second most 

 important industry in Canada, and which with 

 a proper and judicious guarding of our raw ma- 

 terial, will shortly occupy first position. 



The paper mills which have a wood supply 

 will make large profits in the future, as there 



