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used in pressing forward and occupying every vantage ground in trade, is the 

 measure of success which attends individuals and communities. It is not usual 

 in these days to wait until a customer comes knocking at your door to find out 

 what you have for sale ; to succeed, it is necessary that such should be made 

 known far and wide ; and to create a business of any magnitude the first object 

 is to find out what is required not only at home but abroad, and having the 

 article, to calculate whether or not the field can can be entered at a fair profit in 

 furnishing what is wanted. 



" In the Canadian timber trade there seems to have been no lack of energy ; 

 but in my humble opinion it does not appear to have been accompanied by that 

 kind of prudent enterprise which might be expected from the intelligent men 

 who are engaged in it. The square-pine manufacturers have been contented from 

 year to year to go on bargaining with a Quebec merchant to get out so many 

 cubic feet of a certain average for a price agreed upon ; the merchant writes 

 home to his agent or partner to effect sales, or goes himself or some one for him 

 for that purpose, or frequently ships on his own account the timber which the 

 lumberer has contracted for and delivered to him. Not unfrequently the 

 lumberer possessed of means gets out his timber without advances in money or 

 supplies having been made to him and takes it to Quebec to sell it at the best 

 price he can obtain from the dealers there. Sometimes this has succeeded better 

 than contracting ; but where the venture fails through a downward tendency in 

 the market or a rise in freights, it becomes a serious matter to hold it over, as cove 

 charges and other incidentals rapidly effect a shrinkage in the value of the article. 



" But so it has gone on since the early days of getting out square pine ; 

 the same well-trodden rut has been travelled ; the same traffic in the timber in the 

 crude shape of the square " log " has been continued, the actual producer and quasi 

 proprietor of the pine upon the timber limits reflecting on the waste of material, 

 or the propriety and prudence of economizing it and turning it to more profitable 

 account. 



" Saw-mill owners, although they have had trying times during the past few 

 years, are not generally so unfortunate as the operators in square pine, the 

 trade in which is peculiarly fluctuating and uncertain. The former have always 

 had more or less of the domestic trade : and, unless under extraordinary circum- 

 stances, such as the late prolonged depression, can depend on the United States 

 for a market, with prices generally affording a reasonable profit, notwithstanding 

 the American duty of two dollars per one thousand feet ; and with these markets, 

 domestic and across the line, they have seemed to be satisfied without seeking a 

 European opening for their lumber. 



" I feel a delicacy in giving advice in this matter to parties who may very 

 naturally say that they know their own business best ; but, nevertheless, I will 

 venture to observe that those in Canada engaged or interested in the trade in 

 timber which is next in value to agricultural products in the exports of the 

 Dominion, viz., in 1878, $20,054,829, and $27,281,089, respectively, should acquire 

 . a knowledge of and endeavor to cultivate a transatlantic trade, and would 

 suggest that a spirited effort should be made to extend the sawn-lumber business 

 to countries which have hitherto imported the timber in a crude state and 

 manufactured it to suit their purposes. Already have the European and other 

 markets been successfully invaded by the produce of industries of various kinds, 

 from the American continent, and there seems to be no reason why our great 

 staple export should not meet with equal success. 



: ' It may seem out of place in this report to indicate in anything like detail 

 the steps which might be adopted to carry out what has been hinted at, but a 



