2 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



Canada has from the beginning of her history been noted for 

 the extent and riches of her forests, and the lunnber industry has 

 been one of the leading branches of her manifold activities and 

 has developed with her growth, forming a principal contribvitor 

 to the domestic and export trade of the country, giving employ- 

 ment to a large section of the population, developing a healthy 

 and sturdy class of men, and adding to the wealth and prosperity 

 of the Dominion. At the same time the revenue received by 

 some of the provincial governments directly from the forest has 

 been one of the largest sources of income, and has rendered a re- 

 sort to direct taxation in any other form almost altogether un- 

 necessary. The export of domestic forest products for the last 

 fiscal year was $36,724,445. In Ontario and Quebec the usual 

 revenue from woods and forests is from a million and a quarter 

 to a million and a half dollars each year, and in the other pro- 

 vinces which control their own timber lands the revenue is stead- 

 ily on the increase. In New Brunswick, during 1903, it was 

 $196,500. In British Columbia the revenue for the present year 

 was estimated at $250,000, and it will probably be much larger. 

 The total value of forest products, as stated by the Census of 

 1901, is for the census year, $51,000,000. 



European students of forestry, who haye been forced by the 

 condition of affairs on that continent to give the w^ood supply 

 careful thought, have sounded a note of alarm as to the future . 

 We quote from M. Melard, one of the leading foresters of France: 



" At the present moment the forestry situation in the world 

 can be summed up in these words: 



" The consumption of wood is 'greater than the normal produc- 

 tion of the accessible forests; there is in this production a deficit which 

 is for the moment supplied by the destruction of the forests. 



"This situation is very grave. It merits the attention not 

 only of foresters by profession, but of economists and statesmen. 

 Forestry questions which to-day encounter so much indifference, 

 are destined to take, before many years, a capital importance in 

 the consideration of civilized people. May it not then be too 



late! 



"It is profoundly disquieting to ascertain that 215 million 

 inhabitants of Europe, constituting the nations where commerce 

 and industry have attained the greatest power, do not find enough 

 of wood in the forests of the territories which they occupy. 



"If Sweden, Finland, and Canada should supply alone the 

 importations of all the countries requiring manufacturing wood, 

 their normal production would not suffice, and their forest capital 

 would be promptly dissipated." 



Dr. Schlich, a leading English authority, discussing the same 

 question, and reaching a somewhat similar result, concludes with 

 the following statement: 



