236 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May, i()20. 



Canada Has Lumbered 100,000 

 Square Miles 



by Dr. C. D. Howe 



Accordbii!; to Dr. Howe, Canada has lost throui^h forest fires, 1,091 billion 

 feet {board measure) of tiseful timber, litis amount, he estimates as 437 

 times as much as is yearly cut in Canada, llie potential loss to the public 

 treasury has been at the lozvest estimate $1,042,500,000. 



Canadian lumbermen have cut about 100,000 square miles of t^^reen timber. 



"Tlie total area cut over by lumber- 

 men in the past, outside of the area 

 cleared for settlement, can only be ap- 

 ])roximated. Tf it is granted that the 

 lumbermen have cut over 100,000 

 square miles of land, exclusive of 

 lands occupied for agriculture or set- 

 tlement, it would mean a total cut in 

 the past 300 years of 192,000,000,000 

 board feet, at the low yield of 3,000 

 board feet per acre. This, in addition 

 to the large quantity which has been 

 cut from the 92,000 square miles of 

 cleared fanning lands, is certainly as 

 much lumber as has been produced in 

 Canada. Therefore, it may be as- 

 sumed that lumbermen in Canada 

 have not actually cut more than 100,- 

 000 square miles of green timber, if, 

 indeed they have cut as much, when 

 allowance is made for the. area cover- 

 er by fires which have caused their 

 operations to be scattered. 



"The original timbered area, omit- 

 ting semi-treeless land, was approxi- 

 mately 1,900,000 square miles. Of 

 this we. have shown 98,000 square 

 miles to have been cleared for settle- 

 ment, and 100,000 square miles to 

 have bee ncut over by lumbermen, 

 leaving a timbered area yet untouch- 

 ed of 1,702,000 square miles. Assum- 

 ing the average of 3,000 square feet 

 per acre, there should yet remain 3,- 

 279 billion board feet of timber in 

 Canada, at a very conservative esti- 

 mate. On the contrary the highest 

 estimate which has been made, that 

 given by the Chairman of the Conser- 

 vation Commission, the Honorable 

 Clififord Sifton, places the amount of 

 saw timber and pulpwood in Canada 

 at 494,600 million feet, and 1,100 mil- 

 lion cords respectively. 



"By converting the i)ulp\vood into 

 board feet, allowing 500 feet board 

 measure for each cord, it is found that 

 there are standing in Canada only 

 1.094 billion feet of lumber, including 

 the very low grades. The difference 

 between this and the quantity which 

 should yet remain is 2.185 bilHon 

 feet." This quantity has been destroy- 

 ed by forest fires. 



"It is a quantity so large as to b.- 

 beyond comprehension ; it is 437 time-^ 

 as much as is yearly cut in Canada ; 

 it is 49 times as much as the com- 

 bined yearly cut of the North Ameri- 

 can continent, north of Mexico. It 

 means that for every foot of timber 

 that has ever been cut in Canada by 

 lumbermen, at least seven feet have 

 been destroyed by fire. If the stump- 

 age value is placed at the low sum oi 

 fifty cents per thousand feet (the 

 smallest royalty collected by any 

 Canadian Government), the loss to 

 the public treasury has been $1,042,- 

 500,000. The actual money lass to 

 the country has been many times 

 greater, as several dollars are ex- 

 pended in logging, manufacturing and 

 shipping every thousand feet of lum- 

 ber." 



THE "STICK OF GIANT." 



The part that modern high explo- 

 sives play in the lumbering industry 

 in British Columbia is no small one. 

 Their employment in road building, 

 and in the removal of stumps and 

 boulders ; in the splitting up of huge 

 logs, and the removal of log jams are 

 but a few of the ways in which explo- 

 sives are reducing labor costs and 

 hastening production in the forests of 

 that province. 



