34 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



in the three eastern provinces of Quebec, Nova Scotia, 

 and New Brunswick, wliile Newfoundland possesses about 

 10,000,000 acres all within easy sea carriage of Britain. 



The following details regarding Canadian forests are 

 given in the Canadian Annual Review for ] 908 : — 

 Dr. Bell, Assistant Director of the Canadian Geological 

 Survey, estimates the area of the northern forest of 

 Canada at 1,657,600,000 acres. This belt of forest area 

 is chiefly stocked with black and white spruce, and would 

 yield 16,500,000,000 loads of spruce. It is stated that 

 spruce reproduces itself sufficiently fast to produce pulp 

 wood in thirty years, while the present stock of timber 

 would meet the existing demand for pulp wood for the 

 next fifty years. Another estimate puts the total area 

 under spruce alone in Canada at 450,000,000 acres. 

 According to Mr. B. G. Fernow, the area of commercial saw 

 timber in British Columbia probably does not exceed 

 50,000,000 acres, and about the same in the Atlantic 

 Provinces. This survey did not touch the great northern 

 belt of forest, as to which all is more or less conjecture. 

 Mr. R. H. Campbell, Superintendent of Forestry, in his 

 annual report stated that the inquiry made by a com- 

 mittee of the Senate during the past session showed that 

 the natural resources of the northern districts of the West 

 are greater than the public has any idea of. In the near 

 future, the whole eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains 

 will be estabhshed as an inalienable Forest Reserve, while 

 in Quebec 108,000,000 acres were placed in Forest Reserves 

 during the past four years. 



How far these estimates may be correct, and how much 

 of the existing crop may be destroyed by fire, none can 

 say. Everything points to the fact, however, that vast 

 areas of natural timber land exist in Canada at the 

 present day, and that the purchase of land for, and ex- 

 penditure of money in, planting spruce for pulp wood alone 



