25 



expense of Canada, many years would not elapse before our own tanneries would 

 bo seriously crippled, and we no longer able to compete successfully with other 

 countries in the manufacture of leather. 



Answers from Gait, Guelph, etc.: Hemlock getting scarce ; not more than 

 ten years' supply ; timber, sawn into lumber, used for rough work, such as roof- 

 ing, etc. 



Large quantities in Drummoiid and Arthabaska ; five bark factories in the 

 counties ; timber used for scantling and rough boarding ; in settled districts 

 timber worth four to eight dollars per M; in remote districts not of sufficient 

 value to bear transportation ; about one cord of bark is procured from 1,000 feet 

 of lumber ; bark in some districts used for domestic purposes only, in others, as 

 Eastern Townships, manufactured into extract ; five factories produced twenty 

 thousand barrels of 400 pounds each, worth 2-| cents per Ib. at the factory and 5 

 cents per Jb. in Boston; 1-i to 3 cords of bark will produce 1 bbl. of extract, 

 worth in Boston $20 a barrel. 



On non-resident lands the timber is allowed to rot on the ground, and squat- 

 ters, as a rule, either burn or allow it to rot if not close to a mark et. 



In some districts the best is sawn into lumber or cut into lathwood for 

 exportation to England, the balance for railroad ties or cordwood. 



Wherere a farmer makes bark on his own land, he cuts the peeled trees into 

 sawlogs aud clears the land. Where trespassers peel bark they leave the trees to 

 rot. 



After the destruction of a hemlock forest it is generally succeeded by a 

 mixed growth of maple, poplar, cherry, and balsam, when not cleared for farming 

 purposes ; even if replanted, it would take one hundred years' growth to render 

 it available for tanning or extract purposes. 



About 500 Ibs. or more of green raw hide can be converted into leather by 

 one cord of bark. Hemlock extract is said to convert raw hide and leather in 

 one-sixth of the time, and at one-half of the cost. 



The effect of the manufacture and export of hemlock extract will exhaust 

 the hemlock forests at all accessible points and compel manufacturers to remove 

 their tanneries into the rural districts to obtain a supply of bark, raise the price 

 of bark, and consequently of leather, and diminish the quantity of leather pro- 

 duced. 



For the protection of our hemlock forests it was suggested that the extract 

 should be manufactured under a license upon Government land, an export duty 

 charged on bark, and a considerable excise duty on extract manufactured for 

 exportation. 



An acre of good hemlock land would produce from ten to twelve cords of 

 hark, worth from $30 to $36 delivered at the factory, at a cost, say, of $1 per 

 cord for felling and $1 per cord for carting. 



The cord of hemlock lathwood (128 cubic feet) is worth $8 at Montreal or 

 Quebec. 



The conclusion arrived at from this evidence was that our hemlock forests are 

 being and have been rapidly depleted and destroyed, and that without proper 

 care and forethought the language put into the mouth of the Indian many years 

 .ago (referring to stripping the soil of its trees) may in a degree become true- 



' The realms our tribes are crushed to get, 

 May be a barren desert yet. " 



And the remedy seems to be that active measures be resorted to for select 

 ^cutting, natural reforestation and planting, and systematic forestry management . 



