74 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



who bought them. But, sir, the Crown sold all the timber on the lands. It is not 

 proper to tell a man after he buys a property that he did not consider it of value when 

 he bought it. He bought it and paid for it, and anything growing there is his. It 

 is not as though they were getting something they had not bought. The Sandfield- 

 Macdonald Government was the Government that sold the timber in Muskoka, and 

 it sold everything on the ground, not the pine only, as we are doing to-day. 



Mr. STEWART. With reference to what was said by Mr. Mahaffy regarding the 

 difference of ground rent here and in British Columbia, I think the basis is the greater 

 quantity of timber grown in British Columbia, the larger trees, and the greater amount 

 on an acre. For instance, under our regulations west of Yale the charge is five cents 

 an acre, and east of that $5 a square mile. You can easily understand that, even 

 though it might be $160 an acre, it would be perhaps cheap compared with the quantity. 



Mr. WHITE. They have a regulation in British Columbia which says that land 

 with less than 8,000 feet b. m. to the acre upon it shall not be considered timber land. 



Mr. BERTRAM. In answer to Mr. Stewart's statement about the term of a license, 

 I would say that it was not my intention at all to ask for an Act to continue them 

 in force for twenty years. I think it much better as it is. We are Quite willing to 

 trust the Crown, but the object in having the license so that it terminates in that time 

 i* this : What you purchase now is your year's license to cut. That is quite right ; 

 that is the law. You get in addition to that what the regulations give you, that is a 

 renewal, if you comply with the regulations for the year. But even that must cease 

 at the end of twenty years and it reverts back to the Crown, and that is all that th 

 regulation calls for. That is right, Mr. White ? 



Mr. WHITE. Yes, sir. 



Mr. BERTRAM. Now, as to the other matter, about the hardwood, I should have 

 spoken about that while on my feet. That is one of the things we have to call atten- 

 tion to. The hardwood, with the exception of birch, is not of very good quality in our 

 north country. The soil is not sufficient to give you a good hardwood, and it will be 

 necessary, it seems to me, to establish some cheaply contrived alcohol plant in the 

 Algonquin Park for the utilization of this class of wood. I am not troubled very 

 much with the wood, but have a large number of inferior conifers where we could place 

 a plant for making hemlock extract. If the Government could get a plant on the 

 Algonquin reserve that would utilize the hardwood, it would allow the pine to come up, 

 as pine will not germinate under a canopy of hardwood. I would like very much to 

 hear from Professor Roth about that plan of utilizing this wood and what they are 

 doing in the States. I know that they are doing this in the States but would like to 

 do it here on a smaller scale so that the machinery would not be so expensive. I 

 would like to get Mr. Roth's opinion about it. 



Professor ROTH. I feel perfectly certain that the statements of Mr. Bertram 

 are right, with regard to the relation of pine and the other timbers. It is precisely 

 the same as having a cornfield and weeds. You can pluck the corn and you are 

 going to have a field of weeds. That is precisely the case in the forest if we keep on 



