CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 83 







Cedar is in the same position as pine. It is not so much exposed to destruction 

 by fire, but the indiscriminate and senseless cutting which has been going on for some 

 years and increases all the time will soon make that timber a thing of the past, as is 

 now the case in Maine, where the same practice prevailed for some ten or twenty years. 



Hard woods in the sections where they are actually available will certainly last 

 the period assigned to them, even under an increased production, and taking into con- 

 sideration what new railroads will make accessible from year to year, the supply may 

 be regarded as practically inexhaustible. 



Our supply of spruce, for saw-logs and pulpwood, if protected against fire and ( 

 prudently husbanded, is practically exhaustless. As a rule, this species reproduces | 

 by natural growth in fifteen or twenty years, if you cut only the big tre^ and leave 

 the smaller ones nine inches and under in diameter to grow. The spruce forest 

 s not, by the nature of the wood, so much exposed to fire as pine, and iri caie it is 

 run over by fire, the timber can be cut profitably after the disaster, which is not 

 generally the case with burnt pine. And by cutting only the larger trees, you stimu- 

 late the growth and development of the smaller ones, which then have more room 

 and light, a circumstance which tends to stimulate the growth and improve the quality 

 of the wood. 



Unfortunately the desirable results which we might expect from this self re- 

 production of spruce are wiped out by our irrational system of colonization. By 

 granting lands for colonization purposes indiscriminately and allowing settlers to 

 take lots far away from settlements, we force the limit holders, the very men who 

 have the greatest interest in its preservation, to destroy that forest in which they have 

 invested large sums of money. In order to serve their best interests and secure per- 

 manency for their investments, lumbermen endeavour to prolong their trade by care- 

 ful cutting and careful manipulation of the timber on their limits; but they are 

 human just as other people and when they apprehend that they are to lose the fruit 

 of their labour and wise husbandry, through the invasion of colonization, they quite 

 naturally try to make the most out of the situation, they forcibly give up the sys- 

 tem which they have followed for years in the management of their domain and cut 

 everything out of which they can make money and realize as much as they can, for 

 the purpose of recouping themselves for past disbursements. They act upon the 

 principle that charity begins at home. 



In this respect, however, the speculator or bogus settler is the chief factor in 

 the destruction of the forest. As he practically pays nothing to secure the right to 

 cut the timber, as he has not to maintain the value of an investment, as he is not, 

 like the limit holder, bound to cut only the trees of the diameter prescribed by the 

 regulations of the department, as, above all, his sole and only object is to make as 

 much money as possible in as short a time as possible, he simply sweeps the forest, 

 cutting and removing even twigs, if he can get money for them, and leaving not a 

 tree of a size to bear seed for another growth. Moreover, the heaps and masses of 

 branches, chips and other inflammable material which he leaves on the ground, in- 

 vite fire, which generally answers the call and once started extends its work of de- 

 struction to the neighbouring green forests. 



For one who has not verified the facts on the spot, who 'has not seen them with 

 his own eyes, it is impossible to form an adequate idea of the damages caused by 

 squatting or the location of settlers in the middle of the bush, more particularly in 

 a pinery. I submit the following facts to those who are disposed to study the ques- 

 tion in good faith and impartially: 



Some years ago a man by the name of Antoine Lafond settled in the forest near 

 Lake Cagamont, on the Eagle river, far away from other settlements. In clearing 

 land for a crop of potatoes which yielded five bushels, he started a fire which destroy- 

 ed three hundred million feet of pine. The pine so destroyed would be worth to-day 

 $390.000 to the government in stumpage dues, $1,800,000 in wages for woodmen and 

 at the low rate of $4 per M standing, $1,200,000 in profit for the holder of the limit, 

 To put it briefly, to raise a crop of five bushels of potatoes, that settler destroyed tim- 



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