FORESTRY IN RELATION TO MINING. 



By Professor J. C. G'Willim, School of Mining, 

 Kingston. Ont. 



THE forests of the present and future are likely to be found in 

 the rough places of the earth, such places as mountainous 

 districts and the rocky thin-soiled regions, which at least afford re- 

 fuge and nourishment for the hardy conifers. 



It is in such districts that mines are largely found. A nat- 

 ural condition, not a coincidence, associates metallic minerals with 

 rocky and mountainous places. In such districts, often inacces- 

 sible and undesirable from other points of view, the mines alone 

 make a demand upon the forests. As time goes on the more ac- 

 cessible forests will be cut out and replaced by permanent indus- 

 tries. The land so won will seldom revert to forest, or be planted 

 with trees. The last resource of the lumberman will be in the 

 awkward places, such as surround mining districts. Here the axe 

 and fire of the mining industry will have largely forestalled him. 



The mining operations spare nothing above a few inches in 

 diameter up to two feet; they lay tribute to the surrounding hill- 

 sides for lagging, stulls and sawn timbers. These are placed in 

 the mines to support operations temporarily ; they quickly rot, col- 

 lapse, and are of no more use. The mine itself on the average 

 is of only a few years' duration. The miner having robbe^d the 

 forests above and the mineral below passes on leaving the wilder- 

 ness to mend his destruction. 



The nomadic tribes of Siberia are reported to consider min- 

 ing a sacrilege and insult to the earth. To hoist its mineral 

 treasures to the light of day, while casting its green trees into the 

 dark passages of a mine, does seem a violence to nature. 



Considering for a moment the demands of a large mine, pro- 

 ducing say 100,000 tons of ore per annum. The cost in timbers is 

 from 5 cents to 30 cents per ton of ore in Canada, or about one to 

 two lineal feet of 12 inch timber per ton. At one lineal foot per ton 

 this would be one million two hundred thousand feet board mea- 

 sure. This demand soon denudes the adjacent forests and calls 



