4.1-1 Canada. 



1. Forest Conditions. 



The forest area has at various times and by various 

 authorities been roughly estimated as between one and 

 a quarter over one and three quarter million and 

 square miles, which would make the forest per cent. 

 at least over 32. But this includes the open wood- 

 lands of the northern territory and of the prairies, 

 which, while of great importance to the local settlers, 

 are for the most part probably or surely not of com- 

 mercial value. Commercially valuable forests, actu- 

 ally or prospectively, are found almost only in British 

 Columbia and in the old provinces, the two forest 

 regions separated, just as in the United States, by 

 a forestless region, except that north of the prairie 

 region a continuous belt of open woodland extends 

 to near the mouth of the Mackenzie River. A care- 

 ful examination of the sources of information has led 

 the writer to the conclusion that less than 350,000 

 square miles or round 200 million acres would cover 

 fully the commercially valuable forest land, although 

 the wooded area of the provinces in which the com- 

 mercial timber occurs is stated officially as around 

 450 million acres, two-fifths of which is to be found 

 in British Columbia. 



Indeed, although we are accustomed to look upon 

 Canada as a great forest country, it really possesses 

 about 60 per cent, less commercial forest area than 

 the United States, and about one-quarter of the mature 

 timber of that country. It will be understood that 

 all such statistics are merely rough estimates, the 

 data being slim, and eked out by conjectures based 



