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available by railways is very large, while others assert that in these compara- 

 tively unknown districts the quantity of purely merchantable timber is very 

 limited. What may be taken for granted is, that while the area under wood 

 suffers no perceptible decrease, the requirements of the home and foreign markets 

 are augmenting in a ratio far beyond the productive power of the soil. 



To the inquiry as to how the government could promote forest culture in 

 the North-west this witness replied : 



" In my opinion, their first duty is to ascertain the exact nature and extent 

 of the timber supply in the wooded region, and this can be effected only by an 

 exhaustive survey. It would then be possible to determine the area that should 

 be set apart for the support of a permanent forest growth, due consideration 

 being given to the nature of the climate, the condition of the river and other 

 water sources, and the wants, present and prospective, of the population which 

 the arable soil within access is likely to maintain. It would then be in order to 

 reserve certain tracts for the growth of timber in the most fertile sections of the 

 prairie lands. County or municipal authorities should be directed to establish 

 reserves for the protection of river sources or to act as wind-breaks. Railway 

 companies should be compelled to plant the waste lands bordering their tracts, 

 and road-boards or trustees should be under a similar obligation wherever violent 

 winds or snow-drifts were likely to impede traffic or endanger life. Finally, 

 settlers should be encouraged to plant trees for shade and shelter. It would be 

 erroneous to suppose that this system of forest preservation and extension would 

 entail a burden on the exchequer ; the forest lands in the actual possession of the 

 government may, by judicious management, be made to yield a large revenue 

 beyond their expenses, and a portion of this income spent in planting the new 

 reserves would, in course of time, become in such a country the most profitable 

 of investments." 



The possibility of raising a second crop of timber in places where it has been 

 consumed by fire being a subject of inquiry, no definite opinion could be 

 expressed. The only experience in Canada was that of nature left to her own 

 resources. What might be done by systematic culture is doubtful, as no experi- 

 ments had been made ; nor, indeed, could it be said that the consequences arising 

 from forest fires had been examined and reported upon by persons of sufficient 

 authority to have any weight attached to their opinions. This much was certain, 

 that wherever a fire ravaged a pine district, the new growth was of a totally 

 different species, and in hard woods the result was similar. When fire runs 

 along the soil it effectually destroys all vegetative power wherever the rock is. 

 thinly covered, but when it is confined to the branches and trunks, no reason 

 could be seen why the same species might not be regrown. It was feared that 

 the pine would never pay to cultivate in Canada. At a small outlay the Crown 

 Lands Department might easily ascertain what species of timber could succeed 

 in pine-growing lands, and settle this and many other points of no small moment 

 not only to forest science, but to the whole community. 



For the renewal of supplies in Norway and Sweden up to a very recent 

 date, the natural growth has been depended upon to replace the timber felled for 

 commercial purposes and that destroyed by fire. Of late years, however, the 

 growing scarcity of wood has induced many Norwegian mill-owners to purchase 

 cleared or partially-exhausted woodlands, and attempt planting on a large scale, 

 and this movement is extending. Something similar has been undertaken in 

 Sweden by the same class as also by the iron manufacturers, who are at the 

 same time owners of extensive forests. The impression seems to be gaining 

 ground in both countries that the present rate of consumption cannot be main- 

 tained, unless steps are taken to assist the efforts of nature. Were the govern- 



