74 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



carried by sea crafts to Fort Churchill, a distance of 900 miles. From Churchill 

 about 350 miles of railroad, through a general level and very easy country, would take 

 that timber and lumber to the centre of the best farming and wheat lands in those 

 territories. Manitoba is striving to get a railroad built to York Factory, to connect 

 with navigation on Hudson bay. If that project ever materializes would not that 

 procure a desirable outlet for the forest products of Mistassini and Abitibi? Trans- 

 portation by waterways is comparatively so cheap. 



As regards Abitibi, there are four companies chartered to build railroads in- 

 tended to reach James' bay through this territory, three from south to north, and one 

 from east to west. In all probability the Grand Trunk Pacific will also run through 

 that territory, and this should impart practical value to its forests. A piece of rail- 

 road about seventy-five miles in length, from Lake Victoria northwards, could bring 

 the timber of that portion of Abitibi to the Ottawa river, on which it would be driven 

 to the mills and railway stations on this river, and thence the lumber would be shipped 

 in the same manner as the lumber sawn from logs cut in the Ottawa territoiy. 



But to remain on the safe side, let us take exclusively what is actually available, 

 viz., the forests of the southern and central regions, and only 30,626,676 acres in the 

 northern region, comprising the upper section of the six counties of Champlain, St. 

 Maurice, Maskinonge, Berthier, Joliette, Montcalm, and 25,250,876 acres of the most 

 accessible woodlands in Chicoutimi and Saguenay. This brings down to 109,055,427 

 acres the forest area actually available. 



At the conservative estimate per acre of two and a half cords for black spruce, 

 one-half cord for white spruce tops, and one-half cord for fir, the following quantities 

 of pulp wood could be cut on those 30,626,876 acres of wood lands : Black spruce, 

 76,567,190 cords; white spruce, 15,313,438 cords; fir, 15,313,438 cords, forming a total 

 of 107,194,066 cords. Computing the white spruce saw-logs at only 500 feet B.M. to 

 the acre, this territory would produce 15,313,438,000 feet of lumber. 



Hard woods have a commercial value only so far as they are accessible to railroad 

 transportation, either for the raw material or the manufactured. Under our present 

 circumstances, not more than 20 per cent of our hard woods enjoy the advantage of 

 accessibility to railroad transportation, and in order to make a correct estimate this 

 must be taken into account. With all those deductions and restrictions, the actual 

 contents of our available forests may be stated as follows : 



Sturapage. 



Saw-logs 



187,783,966 $75,113,586 



