ago 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



together with some of the old forest. 

 Spruce trees grow much more rapidly 

 up to about thirty years than they do 

 afterwards. The addition made be- 

 tween thirty and one hundred years is 

 much slower." 



In describing its area, he says : 



' ' The area of our northern forests 

 may be reckoned as forty-four times as 

 great as that of England. Any one of 

 these forty-four parts will produce wood 

 enough to supply the ordinary demands 

 of the present population of Canada 

 that is, 5,000,000 people could get what 

 is required for mining, fuel, etc. , by 

 taking the timber from a space the size 

 of England and would be able to allow 

 the other forty-three equal parts to be 

 in reserve or used for export." 



This great region, which has remained 

 so long unexplored, is about to be 

 brought within the reach of civilization 

 through the railway being built from 

 Sault Ste. Marie to Hudson Bay. This 

 will make available at least the timber 

 growing around the bay and along the 

 line of the road, and may possibly pro- 

 vide a more accessible field of pulp wood 

 than can be obtained in any other way 

 for the rapidly growing industries of the 

 "Soo." 



The southern or commercial timber 

 belt spreads over a very wide territory. 

 It comprises that portion of Ontario and 

 Quebec lying between the forty-fifth and 

 fiftieth parallels of latitude and bounded 

 on the east by the St. Lawrence River 

 and on the west by the Great Lakes and 

 Manitoba. Great interest centers in 

 this great timber region by reason of its 

 proximity to the manufacturing centers 

 of the United States and because it eon- 

 tains the most valuable timber for lum- 

 ber east of the Rocky Mountains. 



It is not, however, a compact and un- 

 broken belt of first-class timber. Cli- 

 matic conditions seriously interfere with 

 the development and growth of some of 

 the best species of timber that inhabit 

 this region, for none of the best ones 

 extend farther north than the watershed 

 between Hudson Bay and the Great 

 Lakes, approximately the fiftieth paral- 

 lel of latitude, and many of them find 

 their northern limit far south of this 

 parallel. Besides, all timber deteriorates 



in value and becomes less in volume as 

 it approaches the limit of climatic 

 growth. The composition and extent 

 of this timber belt can be better under- 

 stood by taking a map of the Dominion 

 and tracing its boundaries and noting the 

 northern limit of the most valuable spe- 

 cies. The forty-fifth parallel, which 

 is approximately the southern limit of 

 this region, cuts out entirely one very 

 valuable species the Black Walnut 

 whose northern limit of growth is the 

 latitude of the city of Toronto, while a 

 few miles north of this parallel is the 

 northern limit of Red Cedar and White 

 Oak. A line drawn from the city of 

 Quebec to Sault Ste. Marie will desig- 

 nate the northern limit of Beech, while 

 a line drawn from the northern part of 

 New Brunswick to the north shore of 

 Lake Superior will mark the northern 

 boundary of Sugar Hard Maple. Two 

 other valuable species which have their 

 northern limit within this belt are Elm 

 and Birch. 



The king of the northern forests is 

 White Pine, which has its northern 

 limit, as have also White Cedar and 

 Red Pine, at this fiftieth parallel of lati- 

 tude. This region is now virtually its 

 only home in the Dominion of Canada. 

 It was at one time supposed that it had 

 a very extensive northern range, but 

 Dr. Bell states that its distribution is 

 comparatively southern, very little, if 

 any, being found north of the fiftieth 

 parallel, which marks the watershed 

 between Hudson Bay and the Great 

 Lakes. This belt would furnish an 

 enormous supply of excellent timber 

 but for the destruction wrought by 

 forest fires. Dr. Bell calculates that 

 about one-third of this territory may 

 be considered as under second growth 

 up to about 10 years of age, one-third 

 as intermediate, and one-third includ- 

 ing trees of 100 years or more, and this 

 applies doubtless to-all the forest areas 

 of Canada ; but as to this particular 

 belt, which lies at the very doors of the 

 great manufacturing establishments of 

 the United States, and is the one foreign 

 timber region upon which we rely, one 

 must admit that the available supply of 

 first quality timber is alarmingly lim- 

 ited. 



