70 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



III. SOUTHERN REGION. 



It is the less extensive of the three, as it embraces an area of only 15,381,890 

 acres, or 7 -34 per cent of the total forest area of the province. And more than 25 

 per cent of these 15,381,890 acres are included in grants for colonization purposes. 

 To state the facts as they are, it must be said that genuine forests exist only east of 

 the Chaudiere river, and that the portion comprised between the Chaudiere and Lake 

 Temiscouata will be exhausted within a few years, in so fur as regards the production 

 of saw-logs. 



In this southern region cedar is the most valuable timber. It is the finest cedar 

 to be found in the province, even in Canada, excepting the cedar of British Colum- 

 bia. It attains colossal dimensions in the rich lands of the silurian and devonian 

 formations of the Gaspe peninsula, where timber explorers have found trees measur- 

 ing five feet in diameter on the stump and upwards of fifty feet of clean trunk, with- 

 out branches. In those rich soils, cedar grows in such an abundance that it is hardly 

 credible for one who has not seen it. In the evidence he gave under oath before the 

 Colonization Commission, forest ranger Aquilas Lajoie stated that out of about two 

 acres square of land, in the township of Hamilton, Mr. Robert Sinclair did cut two 

 thousand cedar logs, besides some spruce logs, the average contents of the logs being 

 one hundred feet each. Many of these cedar logs, fourteen to fifteen feet in length, 

 measured forty-five to forty-eight inches in diameter on the stump and thirty to thirty- 

 three inches at the small end. Mr. Sinclair also cut at the same place three hundred 

 and forty pieces of square cedar ten by ten and twelve by twelve inches, ten to fifteen 

 feet in length, and six hundred railway ties. These facts can be easily verified by 

 looking at the stumps, which are there yet, near the front line of lot 10, in range 13, of 

 Hamilton. On lot 5, in range 11, of the same township, the following cut was made 

 during the same season, 1902-03, viz., two years ago: 25,000 cedar and spruce logs, 

 12,000 logs of yellow and black birch, also of large white birch (bouleau), all the logs 

 containing an average of 100 feet each, and 6,000 cedar ties. On the next lot, No. 4, 

 the cut gave 20,000 cedar and spruce logs, 12,000 birch logs and 4,000 cedar ties. The 

 logs averaged 100 feet each. 



The township of Humqui, in the Metapedia valley, is about 120 miles west of 

 Hamilton, on the Bonaventure river. On five lots in Humqui, viz., lots 17, 18, 19, 

 20 and 21, in the eighth range, Mr. Joseph Theberge, a man of long experience, swore 

 that the cut of timber would produce 55,000 cedar and spruce logs, averaging 50 feet 

 each, and forming a total of 2,750,000 feet for 500 acres of land, or an average of 

 5,500 feet to the acre, leaving aside ties and pulp wood. 



The Temiscouata district is just as rich. The sealers of the Department of 

 Crown Lands measured in this district spruce logs thirteen feet long and thirty-seven 

 inches in diameter at the small end. The same quality of spruce grows in the coun- 

 ties of Beauce and Compton. 



The standing timber of this southern section can supply the following quantities 

 to the trade: 



Soft woods 



Saw-logs. 



White pine 75,000,000 feet B.M. 



White spruce 12,000,000,000 



TT J J 



Hard woods 



Birch, yellow and black .. 100,000,000 



Maple 50,000,000 " 



Elm 20,000,000 " 



Ash 5,000,000 " 



Beech 10,000,000 " 



White birch (bouleau) 25,000,000 " 



Poplar 15,000,000 " 



