riYl/>/.lY /'o A- />//.'} A8SOCIATIUX. 77 



the rest of the limit, they would reply, and that would settle it, ' Only rubbish,' mean- 

 ing that it was of no value, and as a matter of fact, spruce at that time was of no 

 value. To-day that very spruce on those limits renders a value equal, if not superior, 

 to the value in that time of pine limits. 



' To go a little further and to show you how the value of the forests has in- 

 creased, let me say that at that time we did not put any value at all on red pine. 

 Many years ago, after I had commenced this business, we would not have cut .a red 

 pine in logs, where we had only to cut it and pitch it along into the river or the lake 

 and let it take care of itself; no red pine for the lumbermen at that time. Now, as 

 we go along, wherever we can get spruce, we cut it just the same as we do the pine 

 and the red pine too comes in now as well as the white one. The red pine is worth 

 to-day as much as the white pine. I speak of that to show you the difference that a 

 few years have made in the value of the forest.' 



Cedar is another kind of timber formerly considered as of no value for com- 

 mercial purposes and now ranking amongst the most valuable kinds of timber. ' That 

 is a kind of wood,' says Mr. Booth, who speaks from experience, ' that will come for- 

 ward as it geta better known. It is a wood of which railways will now get all their 

 ties. A few years ago, you could not sell a single cedar tie to put in a railroad. A 

 few years ago we commenced to put them to our line, (the Canada Atlantic Rail- 

 way.) We considered that the railroad was well provided with them. To show you 

 how the cedar tie is now valued, compared with that time, the Grand Trunk applied 

 to me to see if I could supply them with cedar ties. I offered some tamarack ties, 

 but word came back that none but cedar were to be bought by them. Now they use 

 the cedar just the same as they used tamarack, and the cedar ties will last from 15 to 

 20 years, and the tamarack not more than five years. That shows the value of our 

 forests. I look upon the cedar that I have upon my limits just as much as I do the 

 pine. Cedar and what it is generally worth to us is not generally thought of by the 

 casual observer. It is used for tubs, for ties; it makes the most reliable culverts on 

 railways, it is used for telegraph poles, telephone poles and for the tubs needed in 

 paper mills. We have no timber in this country to take the place of this kind of 

 timber. Cedar is also used for fence posts and nothing can replace it. In the United 

 States a cedar tie is more valuable than any other tie. These are some of the reasons 

 that I say we have immense wealth at our command in our forests. If not only those 

 that will sit down and think it over, but even if those that will give but a thought 

 to it will pause and look around, they will see a great many different kinds of tim- 

 ber that we used to look upon as having no value, and we took to use them so fast 

 too, they will soon realize what our forests will be worth in a few years.' 



Some twenty years ago, the Hon. W. C. Edwards made the following state- 

 ment before a committee of the Legislative Assembly: 



'I make the statement here, that I attach value to every green thing that grows 

 upon a timber limit. As pine becomes less, I consider the value of other woods en- 

 hanced. I consider the pine, spruce, red pine, birch, maple, hemlock, tamarack and 

 cedar of commercial value. Beech, I think, wfll come in too ; white wood, or bass- 

 wood, also. I regard it that all the timber on the limits will yet come in and be 

 available as a commercial asset to the province.' 



That prediction has been fully realized, with regard to soft woods formerly con- 

 sidered as having no commercial value, such as cedar, hemlock, fir, and black spruce, 

 and it will also be realized with regard to hard woods, as they are made accessible by 

 railroads. 



A most remarkable instance of this evolution in the commercial value of our 

 forests, is that regarding black spruce and fir. Not many years ago, black spruce, 

 which attains but a comparatively small diameter and makes very poor lumber, was 

 considered entirely worthless, and a lumberman talking of buying a black spruce 

 berth would have been considered as non compos mentis, or out of his mind. To-day 

 these same black spruce berths are looked after with the same eagerness and paid for at 



