44 CAJfAlH.\\ rnKKxTKT ASSOCIATION. 



MMit by the government to the Forest Exhibition in 1884 in Edinburgh, bait I do not 

 think it was followed by anything special. 



I was speaking to the lieutenant-governor of the province the day before yesterday, 

 and he was very sorry he could not attend. Our legislature opens to-day, and you can 

 easily see that it would be very difficult for those gentlemen who are connected with it 

 to be here. 



NEW BRUNSWICK'S FOR'ESTS. 



BY COL. T. G. LOGGIE, CROWN LANDS DEPARTMENT, FREDERICTON, N.B. 



From its earliest history, the products of the forests of New Brunswick have held 

 a first place in its trade exports. Although a large section of the province is ad- 

 mirably suited for agriculture, particularly the magnificent intervales of the River 

 St. John, stretching almost from its mouth upwards to the limits of the province, 

 a distance of 300 miles; of the Hiramichi, Kennebecasis and other valleys; the 

 broad salt marshes of the upper Bay of Fundy ; still lumber has remained King. 



New Brunswick contains an area of 17| millions of acres, of this acreage 10 

 millions are granted lands and 7 Crown Lands, and the province fts everywhere 

 drained by large rivers, with innumerable branches, almost locking each other at 

 their source. 



It will thus be seen that lumbering can be carried on advantageously, as one has 

 yet to find a section of the province, where logs cannot be cut and driven down these, 

 waterways to market. Of these rivers, the St. John is the largest, and drains nearly 

 cne half of the province. Next in importance is the Miramiohi, its watershed em- 

 bracing about 5,000 square miles. 



The settled portions of the province are principally along the river valleys and 

 coast line; the interior forming one vast timber preserve and embracing a territory 

 80 miles wide and 100 miles long, without a habitation of any kind, ave the lumber- 

 man's and trapper's shanty and no sound, except the ring of the woodman's axe or 

 the call of the hunter. Here is a dqmain fairly free from *he ravages of fire, and 

 timbered with all kinds of valuable lumber. The greater part of this territory is un- 

 fit for cultivation, lying on the granite and boulder formation, although the northern 

 sections, in its approach to the Restigouche river runs into the Upper Silurian belt, 

 and consequently has good deep soils. Everywhere over the belt both black and 

 white spruce abounds, some pine and vast quantities of the hardwoods that have 

 scarcely been touched, also large quantities of the finest and largest cedar in eastern 

 Canada. 



Leaving this section of the province, and turning our attention to the country 

 lying southerly and south-westerly of the south-west Miramichi, and extending to 

 the Bay of Fundy, we find a territory heavily cut and in places badly burned. The 

 Xashwaak river is an exception, where Alexander Gibson, our lumber king, still 

 reigns supreme. 



FOREST FIRES. 



In reading reports from time to time, of the timber domain of Canada, as well 

 as of the United States the same story is read and re-read of devastation by forest 

 fires. New Brunswick has not escaped. The great Miramichi fire, that swept through 

 this province in the year 1825 is a matter of history. Scarcely a year elapses, with- 

 out more or less fires, although of late we have suffered less perhaps, than our neigh- 

 bours. 



Our legislature and lumbermen have grappled for years with this great question, 

 and the government has still under consideration more effectual methods for check- 



