1G6 



ments of those countries to introduce measures for the promotion of timber 

 culture, they would not be under the disagreeable necessity of imposing restric- 

 tions that operate frequently to the disadvantage of trade. There is no fact 

 better proved than the one that capital invested in the cultivation of timber 

 yields immense returns. 



It is claimed that the area under forests in Sweden amounts to 150,000 

 square miles, and in Norway to 50,000 square miles. Competent judges are of 

 opinion that, in the former country less than one-half, or about 40,000,000 acres, rep- 

 resent the total quantity of land bearing merchantable timber ; an area not larger 

 than that which the Province of Quebec might set apart for the production of 

 timber without encroaching on lands adapted to agricultural purposes. In the 

 older Provinces of the Dominion there is an extent of forest territory far greater 

 than there is in the north of Europe, if we except Russia. 



OTHER STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE FOREST RESOURCES OF CANADA. 



The annual reports of the Montreal Board of Trade and Corn Association > 

 in giving statements of the dealings in forest products from year to year, have 

 repeatedly called attention to the great and needless waste that was continually 

 going on, and have suggested the propriety of compulsory regulations to enforce 

 economy in lumbering operations. The custom of levying dues upon logs by 

 number, without reference to quality, naturally leads the lumbermen to select 

 only the best leaving the poorer grades to rot in the woods. But if these dues 

 were imposed on the basis of quality an expensive system of inspection in the 

 woods would be involved, and it has been suggested that the most satisfactory 

 means of collecting the revenue would be by an ad valorem rate on the timber 

 sawed and exported, as could be best done by the inland revenue department. 



It has been 'further suggested that rigorous measures should be devised and 

 enforced with the view of preventing the vast damages annually done by forest 

 fires, and that inducement should be offered for information that should lead to 

 the punishment of those originating them, whether wilfully or by accident. 

 " Such a fire may have been set by a stray hunter or fisherman bent on sport, or 

 by the clearing of some pioneer far in advance of the frontier settlement, or, as 

 is often the case, by some of the lumbermen's employees, who, troubled by the 

 flies on the banks of a stream, may have kindled a fire to secure protection from 

 their tormentors which the smoke affords." The remedy against these acts of 

 carelessness or malice must be found in adequate penalties rigidly enforced, and 

 of such degree as to render it certain that due care shall be taken in the handling 

 of tires in the woods. 



With respect to the rate of reproduction of woodlands and the measures 

 that deserve attention in securing that end, the reports in former years offer the 

 following statements and opinions : 



" To obtain an idea of the regular increase in the value of growing timber it 

 may be supposed that it grows one-quarter of an inch in diameter yearly, which 

 is not over the mark ; and as the trees cut will average about twenty inches in 

 diameter, the increase in size will, therefore, be about seven and a-half feet per 

 log, board measure, or over three and a-half per cent. If to this, three and a-half 

 per cent, be added to the sum lost by over-production, an idea of the foolishness 

 of such a policy may be had. It is quite certain that as timber gets cut away 

 and becomes scarce, prices will rise ; and that the lumberers of the present genera- 

 tion are actually killing the hen that would, if properly treated, continue to lay 

 golden eggs. 



