WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF QUEBEC 



The Dominion Forestry Branch has already published, in separate bulletins, 

 studies of the wood-using industries of the province of Ontario, of the Maritime 

 Provinces (including New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island), 

 and of the three Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta). 



The main purpose of these studies is to show the importance of wood in 

 general as a raw material in the making of different articles, and particularly 

 the use which is made of our native woods. Such studies are not only interesting 

 to all but are important to both forest owners and wood consumers. 



This bulletin deals with the wood-using industries of the Province of Quebec. 

 The figures given were gathered during the years 1914 and 1915, unfortunately 

 at a period when the wood-using industries of the province and of the whole 

 of Canada were badly affected by the European war. It is probable that the 

 total consumption reported was reduced because of the conditions prevailing. 



In 1915 the province of Quebec led all the provinces of the Dominion in 

 lumber production. Its total output of logs for the year 1915 was approximately 

 1,570,356,000 feet board measure, of which 1,078,787,000 feet were sawn by the 

 various saw-mills of the province. 



It should be understood that, in this study as well as in those previously 

 published, the prime object is a presentation of the general conditions rather 

 than a census of the quantity of wood consumed, although the bulletin will 

 convey a fair idea of the quantity of the native and foreign woods necessary 

 to supply the wood-using manufacturers of the province. 



These statistics are compiled from reports received from 864 manufacturers. 

 They show that the wood-using industries of the province consume yearly 

 a quantity of raw wood material equal to 44 55 per cent of the total log output 

 of its forests, and 64 8 per cent of the total lumber sawn in the province. Eighty- 

 five per cent of the material consumed is native to the province, ten per cent 

 is purchased in the other provinces of the Dominion, and five per cent outside 

 of Canada, mainly in the United States. 



It is to be regretted that about 350 firms have not replied to requests for 

 reports but most of the important manufacturers in every class of industry 

 have been kind enough to give such reports 



The figures given above show the importance to the province o Quebec 

 of keeping its forests in the best condition possible, not only for meeting the 

 present demand of its manufacturers but also with a view to providing for the 

 future in all classes of wood-using industries. With the steadily increasing 

 population of the province and the rapid improvement of the financial condition 

 of its inhabitants the manufacture of wooden articles is capable of much further 

 development as long as the raw material is available. 



It is true that the province of Quebec, like most of our Canadian provinces, 

 does not possess much hardwood of very high value. Quebec's small supply 

 of hickory and white oak is almost exhausted. However, its large supply 

 of woods such as spruce, balsam fir, pine, birch, maple, and beech, which form 

 the basis of the wood-using industries, strongly emphasizes the importance of 

 preserving the forests stocked with these woods and also the necessity of the 

 establishment of a rational policy of silviculture for assuring a permanent supply 



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