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but suitable either for domestic use or for export to the American market, where, 

 during general business prosperity, large quantities of the lower grades of lumber 

 are required for packing and other purposes connected with trade of all kinds, as 

 much as 100,000,000 feet, it is stated, being sold annually by two or three firms 

 in Brooklyn and New York, to be used as boxes for packages of petroleum alone; 

 but the upper part of the tree is rejected by the square-timber manufacturer and 

 left in the woods, with the fine wood beaten off, to rot and become material for 

 feeding forest fires, by which more timber has been destroyed than has ever been 

 cut down for commercial purposes. 



" The following will show the estimated loss to the Province and the revenue 

 from waste in getting out square pine from 1868 to 1877, both inclusive : Total 

 quantity taken from public and private lands during the ten years, 119,250,420 

 cubic feet ; waste, one-fourth of each tree, equal to one-third of the total men- 

 tioned, viz., 39,750,140 cubic feet, or say, in round numbers, 477,000,000 feet, 

 board measure, which may be valued, one-half at $10 per 1.000 feet, and one-half 

 at $5 per 1,000 feet, representing relatively the prime timber beaten off and the 

 inferior timber from the upper part of the tree, average value say $7.50 per 1,000 

 feet, equal to $3,577,500 loss to the Province for the ten years, or an annual loss 

 in material wealth of $357,750. 



" The quantity taken from public lands during the ten years is 87,620,135 

 cubic feet, the waste on which, on the basis given, being equal to 29,206,711 

 cubic feet, or 350,000,000 feet, board measure, subject to Crown dues at $750 per 

 1,000,000 feet, equal to $262,500 lost to the revenue during the ten years, or afc 

 the rate of $26,250 per annum.* 



" The loss to the country and revenue from timber destroyed by fires, which 

 might have been confined to a limited area, and possibly extinguished, before great 

 damage had been done to the forest, had they not been fed by the debris of trees 

 left to rot and dry, is incalculable. 



" In 1877, 1 instructed the officer in charge of the woods and forests branch of 

 the department to prepare a paper on the waste of timber referred to, for the 

 purpose of submitting it to the department of Crown lands of Quebec, with the 

 view of joint action by the two Provinces towards the discouragement of the 

 further continuance of the square timber trade. 



" On addressing himself to the task, he found that the lack of knowledge of 

 the mode of dealing with the square timber, after its arrival in the old country in 

 the square " log," was a great drawback to writing intelligently on the subject, 

 as it was essential to know how the timber was disposed of at the great centres 

 of import, such as Liverpool, London, Glasgow, etc.; who the parties were who 

 ultimately acquired the handling of it ; where it was cut into specification bills 

 to meet the wants of those who put the product of the " logs," after they had been 

 reduced to the required dimensions, to practical use, etc , so that the department 

 might be in possession of facts, more or less important, when it undertook to 

 show those who are engaged in the trade in Canada, that in abandoning it, and 

 thereby stopping the supply of square timber, they would create a market for 

 their material on the other side of the Atlantic in the shape of sawn lumber. 



*If every part of the outside wood wasted in squaring timber could be used, the loss might be estimated 

 at a much higher rate than is above estimated. If the area of a given circle be 1, the area of an enclosed 

 square is 0.636 nearly. The loss is therefore about 0.364 in the outer wood alone, to say nothing of the tops 

 left on the ground. But as there must inevitably be some loss in working, there could scarcely be realized 

 more than 25 per cent. This, in the aggregate of large quantities, is a loss so immense that it should 

 attract the attention of the manufacturers and lead to a thoughtful study into the means for its avoidance. 

 In the careless way that lumber is manufactured, and with the wide-set saws too much in use, it could be 

 easily shown that more than half the material of our forests is wasted, a considerable part of which might, 

 with proper care, be saved. 



