76 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



In the total of $1,293,183,779, spruce forms 64'78 per cent and pine 20'52 per 

 cent. Fir comes in for 6 '25 per cent and cedar for 3-78 per cent. 



The saw-logs, in government dues and wages, form a total of $674,312,287 for all, 

 and the pulp wood $544,576,540, a difference of only $129,735,747, which clearly shows 

 the possibilities of the pulp wood business. 



Now, if instead of taking only 25,250,876 acres in the counties of Chicoutimi and 

 Saguenay, we would take all the 8T,494,628 acres of forest comprised in those coun- 

 ties, it would add to the quantity of floatable pulp wood 155,609,380 cords of spruce 

 and 38,902,345 of fir, or a total of 194,511,725 cords, which should yield $77,804,690 

 in stumpage dues for the government and $486,279,312 in wages for woodmen, or a 

 total of $564,084,002. Add this to the $441,962,954 given above for spruce and fir 

 pulp wood, and you reach the phenomenal total of $1,006,046,956, representing the 

 value of our floatable pulp wood in government stumpage and wages for woodmen, 

 leaving aside over thirty million cords of poplar and all the black spruce and fir we 

 have in the territories of Abitibi, Mistassini and Ashuanipi which comprise 69,879,- 

 160 acres of spruce forest. 



The pulp wood of Abitibi and Mistassini is not actually available, as it will have 

 to be taken out by railroads which are not yet built; but the wood of Ashaunipi is 

 just as available as that of. any other section of the province, as it can be driven to 

 Hamilton Inlet, a good sea-port on the Atlantic, about 250 miles north of Belle Isle 

 Straits. From Hamilton Inlet to the ports of the United Kingdom the distance is 

 about 1,750 miles. There is a company lumbering on the Hamilton river, and run- 

 ning a large saw-mill at the mouth of Goose river, which debouches into the head of 

 the inlet, which shows that lumbering operations are practicable in that district. The 

 forests of Ashaunipi have an area exceeding 20,000,000 acres, capable of yielding 

 50,000,000 cords of spruce and 10,000,000 of fir pulp wood. 



This territory of Assuanipi looks only as a parcel or a strip on the map of the 

 province of Quebec, but its area exceeds by about 7,000,000 acres that of Nova Scotia, 

 by over 2,000,000 acres that of New Brunswick, and it nearly equals that of the state 

 of Maine, which comprises only 21,145,600 acres. 



There are* many large water-powers in Ashuanipi, namely the Great or McLean 

 Falls, on the great Hamilton river, about fifty miles distant from the head of tide. 

 Those falls are 302 feet high, and it is considered that they could develop an average 

 of over one million horse-power. 



All those facts may convey an idea of the possibilities of our province in regard 

 to the pulp and paper industry, taking into account only that portion of its spruce 

 forests which are accessible by waterways and practically available. 



EVOLUTION IN THE VALUE OF FORESTS. 



White pine, some thirty years ago, was considered as the only timber possessed 

 of commercial value, especially for the export trade. Explorers sent out to value 

 wood lands would not look at spruce, hemlock, fir, cedar, or even red pine, which they 

 regarded as worthless, and classed them in the category of rubbish. By and by the 

 latter rose in the estimation of the trade, and to-day it nearly equals white pine in 

 value. White spruce came up next, and now ranks amongst the kinds of timber most 

 sought for, even for export trade. One of our lumber kings, the Hon. Senator W. C. 

 Edwards, who speaks from experience, does not hesitate to say that there is more 

 money in spruce than pine, that he regards no investment in Canada as good as an 

 investment in a spruce limit, and prefers it to pine. Another lumber king, Mr. J. R. 

 Booth, made the following statement in his evidence before the Colonization Com- 

 mission : 



' Formerly our explorers, that is the men we send to explore and report on the 

 nature of the forest, would go round on the limit and report to us that there was a 

 certain quantity of pine in such a part, and when we would ask them, what was on 



