98 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



If pri vionsly, as well as taking the spruce, some of the silver 

 fir and beeches had been j^irdled and thus killed, the spruce could 

 have held its place. The forest would have been much more 

 valuable than it is at present and would also have saved the large 

 yearly expense now entailed in clearing away the useless material 

 in introducing the sprree on a large scale. 



Of cf)urse it might be argued that it would not pay to do 

 this girdling, but that is scarce'ly the case as the return propor- 

 tionally is not very nuich greater now than it was then. Besides 

 that it is much more expensive to do such extra work now than 

 it was then. 



In connection with the last named forest as soon as it was 

 dcfinitel)- worked (1870) it was found that locally very little tim- 

 ber was required, especiall>i little or no fir timber. Saw-mills were 

 then started tCf make boards suitable for the Rhine Provinces, and 

 this was done with such success that these supplies are now in- 

 dispensible. The industries were thus permanently located in 

 that forest, and thclir output is naturally limited by the permanent 

 outturn of timber, which that forest is capable of yielding, and 

 which is gradually increasing. The primeval forest by no means 

 yields the maximum quantity of lumber per acre. In the above 

 way lumberman and forester work together to mutual advantage. 



A rather parallel process is at present going on in the mixed 

 forests w^est of Ottawa. That is to say, where white pine is 

 scattered in small groups or singly in large areas of hardwood, 

 such as beech, maple, blue beech (hornbeam) and yellow^ birch. 

 Of these at the present, the yellow birch is the only species of 

 value or rather that it pays to bring out. The pine is taken, 

 leaving little or none ; its place is largely filled by poplar or 

 hardwood. The pine by reason of its original small numbers has 

 not the same chance of reseeding itself, hence such areas become 

 practically valueless. It is of course rather presuming to sav 

 that beech, blue beech, etc., will have no value, but still the past 

 seems to indicate that there is little hope of their value being so 

 great as to justify thtdr permanent production; at any rate on 

 such areas as they at present occupy. 



Even under a careful plan of artificially helping the pine to 



