Letter from Mr. Louis Miller. 7 5 



placed in a row about six feet apart, each with a small hand-iron; 

 they take out a small hole in the ground, drop four or five seeds 

 in it, tramp on it with the foot, and pass on, taking out holes in 

 this way from three to six feet apart. One pound of seed plants 

 about five acres and the seed costs one shilling per pound. In 

 this way the Swedish forests are replanted at a cost of about 2.5 

 cents per acre. Seed thus planted grows up immediately, and I 

 have seen Swedish forests planted a few years ago now with a 

 young crop of trees a few feet high. 



When I got the 10,000 acres burnt in Nova Scotia, I took out 

 a ton of spruce seed from England to plant up that burnt ground, 

 but was very much astonished to find I was charged 20% duty 

 for importing it to Nova Scotia. I remonstrated with the 

 Ottawa authorities, who compromised the matter by reducing the 

 duty to 10%.. I think, however, it is short-sighted policy on the 

 part of the Canadian Government to levy a duty upon seed 

 imported for planting up waste ground in Canada. For example, 

 I reckon that an average acre of forest in Nova Scotia or 

 Canada contains about 6,000 feet of timber, and the cost of cut- 

 ting down, manufacturing and putting f.o.b. 1,000 feet of lumber 

 is about $10. ; so that on every acre of forest property cut down, 

 about $60. has to be expended in wages disbursed in the country 

 and which benefits the people of the country. It is therefore of 

 very great importance to Canada to have its waste ground cover- 

 ed with forest, instead of lying barren, because it means employ- 

 ment for the people and benefit all round. I am planting up 

 that 10,000 acres of burnt land on my property by emploving 

 about a dozen boys and doing it on the Swedish system. One 

 man goes behind them to keep them in a straight line. A boy, 

 as a rule, can in this way plant about five acres per day. By 

 planting up this 10,000 acre's of burnt land with spruce seed I 

 expect in five years to have the whole ground covered with a 

 crop of young spruce trees three to four feet, high, which in 25 

 years, will be suitable for making pulp, and this instead of having 

 the ground lying waste for 20 or 30 years growing hardwood 

 bushes. 



I also took over a small quantity of larch seed which I wish 

 to experiment with on my property, but the Nova Scotia soil 

 is suitable for spruce, and except for experimental purposes, 

 the crop planted should be spruce. 



Forest management in Nova Scotia and Canada is about the 

 worst anywhere. In fact, there is practically none at all, and 

 I don't think any of the Canadian or Nova Scotia lumbermen 

 know anything at all about their forests. Some of the chief of 

 them with whom I have conversed have never seen their forests, 

 or at least only to a very limited extent. During the past five 

 years I have had many forests in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 

 and Quebec examined with the view to purchase, only to finj 



