Canadian Forestry Journal, Januarv, 1920 



29 



are so many American mills which have no 

 supply of their own and will be forced out of 

 business on that account, which will make a 

 continued shortage of paper from this time on. 

 Furthermore, no government can for any length 

 of time, interfere with the natural law of supply 

 and demand, or make a spruce tree in less than 

 50 to 75 years. 



As showing what effect lumber and other pro- 

 ducts of wood may have on the price and scar- 

 city of pulpwood, I will simply note that in 

 some sections, owing to the abnormally high 

 price of laths, pulpwood is being sawn into laths 

 netting from $30.00 to $35.00 per cord for the 

 wood at point of shipment. 



In an article which I wrote three years ago 

 when the publishers were complaining of 2'/4 

 cents paper, I then stated that the question of 

 the future would be not one of price, but of 

 obtaining paper at any price. 



That prediction has already proved only too 

 true in a much sh orter time than I anticipated. 



I have devoted the past 28 years to the study 

 of the one subject of timberlands and wood 

 supply, and during this period I have seen 

 lands go from $1 to $15, $20 and up as high 

 as $50 per acre for the same lands; and stump- 

 age go for $1.50 for a mark of logs that only 

 took four to the thousand, to the price of $20 per 

 thousand for a mark of twelve to the thousand; 



pulpwood from the low price of four dollars to 

 a high of thirty-two dollars per cord, and spruce 

 lumber from a low of twelve to a high of sixty 

 dollars per thousand. Stumpage in New Bruns- 

 wick even has been sold as high as $15 per 

 thousand during the present year. 



A GRAPHIC CHANGE. 



In 1890 they were cutting trees that took 

 not more than six or seven to make a thousand 

 feet of lumber, while to-day they are cutting to 

 such a small diameter limit that in many sec- 

 tions it takes forty trees to make a thousand 

 feet. I saw one pile of wood out on the Trans- 

 continental containing 4,000 cords, where the 

 largest stick was 4J/2 inches and from that it 

 ran to 1'/2 inches, with the average size run- 

 ning under three inches. 



In one section of the Pacific Coast where the 

 United States Government estimate a stand of 

 eighty-six billion feet, the highest authority in 

 the timber cruising line, and one who knows 

 more of that particular section than any other 

 man, from actual cruises says the figure 8 wants 

 to be dropped, as there is not over 6 billion at 

 the most. Another example I have in mind 

 is a certain territory which was estimated to 

 contain 25 million cords of pulpwood and 

 where, after operating seven or eight years, and 

 cutting out only about 250 thousand cords, all 

 the available wood was cut, and at a severe loss. 



IX (WNADA'S NO MAN'S LAND. 



.Stripped of limber, ami tlif soil huniod oiY by rocurrin.s; fires, this imrtion of l\-ntral Ontario 

 has been turned from a fine Provineial asset into a Tublic bnrden. 



