64 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



ritory, there is enough of that fine white spruce to make about thirty billion feet of 

 saw-logs of superior quality. 



Banksian pine (Pinus banksiana) is another kind of timber which grows in 

 abundance throughout the northern region. It is chiefly used for making railway 

 ties. Calculating at the low rate of only two ties per acre, on the average, there 's 

 enough of that kind of timber to make upwards of 320 million ties, or sufficient to 

 ji.oke ties for 150,000 miles of railway. 



Botanists describe Banksian pine as a stunted, short and branchy tree. This 

 description certainly applies not to the Banksian pine of the Lake St. John and Sague- 

 nay district, where these trees grow to a considerable height and attain a diameter 

 which renders them fit for the manufacture of saw-logs. In a shanty on the Kiver au 

 Rat, in 1898, a jobber cut a tree of this kind and gave ninety-one feet in length of 

 utilisable timber, viz.: five saw logs and two ties. That tree measured fifteen inches 

 across the stump and over seven inches at the top. In the burnt grounds and wind- 

 falls in the townships of Albanel and Pelletier, also in those of Dolbeau and Taillon, 

 one can count by scores of thousands Banksian pine trees measuring from forty to 

 fifty feet in length and seven to eight inches in diameter at the small end. The 

 wharf at Tikouape, or St. Methode, is mostly all built of Banksian pine, fifteen to 

 twenty f,eet long and eight to twelve inches square. At the Escoumains mills they 

 sawed for many years Banksian pine logs, turning out good boards which were ex- 

 ported to the United States. Logs of this timber are still sawed by tho mills of Laloi 

 St. John. Banksian pine ties are from year' to year coming to the front and looked 

 after to such a point that they can be transported by railway from Roberval to Que- 

 bec, a distance of 190 miles, and sold at prices leaving a good margin for profit. 

 When there will be no more cedar to supply the enormous quantities of ties required 

 j early oy railways, one of its most valuable substitutes will unquestionably be found 

 in that Banksian pine, which the northern region is in a position to supply for a very 

 long period. 



The fine pineries of the Lake St. John country have been depleted by the Chi- 

 coutimi mills; but in other parts of the northern region there yet remains a good 

 deal of this timber. The census of 1901 shows that during that year there were cut 

 in the county of Chicoutimi and Saguenay, 54,182 cubic feet of square pine and 

 J, 217,000 feet board measure of saw-logs of the same timber. 



But it is in the Abitibi territory, from the height of land northwards to a dis- 

 tance of about fifty miles, that pine is found more abundantly. This area embraces 

 about 6,500,000 acres which, at the minimum rate of 50 feet hoard measure to the 

 acre, would yield 325,000,000 feet. This pine is scattered over all the higher lands 

 i>nd hills and could be cut profitably only in connection and simultaneously with 

 spruce; but, nevertheless it is there, and in the high and rocky grounds surrounding 

 many parts of the lakes, it could supply material for pretty extensive operations. 



Cedar (Thuya occidentalis) is another kind of timber which grows more or less 

 abundantly in the southern section of the northern region. As is the case for pine, it 

 is in the Abitibi territory that it grows more profusely. The best is found around the 

 lakes and along the river banks. The southwest section of the Abitibi territory alone 

 could supply sufficient of that timber to cut at least twenty millions of ties, a couple 

 of million cubic feet of square timber, eight to twelve inches square, large quantities of 

 piles, telegraph and telephone poles, pickets and fence rails. 



Of deciduous trees, white birch (Betula papyrifera') is by far the most abundant all 

 over the northern region. It is seen everywhere and in many places it occupies the 

 ground almost exclusively. Till now this birch has been used only for fuel and for 

 making spools and some turnery articles, but the time is, perhaps, not far distant when 

 it will be used for furniture and also for cooperage, to make barrels and kindred articles. 

 In the virgin forests, where white birch is a primitive growth, many trees are seen 

 girthing ninety inches and more (see Report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands for 

 1S98, p. 92, French version), particularly in the lower part of the rivers Alex and Peri- 

 bonka, where immense quantities of those large trees grow on the mountain sides and 



