LUMBERING CONDITIONS ON THE COAST OF BRITISH 



COLUMBIA.* 



By R. H. Alexander, Vancouver, B.C. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : — 



The subject on which I have been asked to make a few re- 

 marks might, at first thought, be considered somewhat antagon- 

 istic to that of Forestry, as the Lumber industr}^ is occupied 

 chiefly in the destruction of the forests rather than preserving 

 them, but in reality the subjects are intimately connected. The 

 Lumber Manufacturer's vocation is the conversion of the raw 

 supplies of the forest into a marketable commodity for the use 

 of man, and the object of the Forestry/ Association I take it, is to 

 conserve the forest so as to ensure an ever recurring supply. 

 I would like to put the importance of this to the general com- 

 munity by making a comparison with the farmer, who is looked 

 upon as the backbone of the countr}'', not that I wish to decry 

 the importance of the wheat industry, but it appears to me that 

 the produce of the forest is hardly looked upon in the same way. 

 Take one acre of ground producing 20bushels of wheat, this would 

 equal 1,200 lbs., one acre of average timber land in British Colum- 

 bia would yield 20,000 feet, weighing 3 lbs. per foot or 60,000 lbs., 

 so that it would take the farmer fifty years to furnish as much 

 produce for railway transportation as the lumberman does in one. 



The money expended in marketing the crop of this acre of 

 timber would also represent $200, about 30 years of the farmer's 

 expense. The exhaustion of the forests of a country means the 

 extinguishment of its lumber trade, hence the importance of the 

 scientific treatment of our forests, which the Forestry Association 

 is endeavouring to bring about. 



I need hardly, when addressing a gathering of Canadians, 

 enlarge on the importance of the lumber trade, as they are all 

 familiar with the great role it has played in the development of 

 the Dominion ; furnishing direct employment to a large portion of 

 its population, consuming great quantities of the product of the 

 fields and manufacturing establishments, and besides building 

 up a merchant marine of our own, attracting vessels from all 

 quarters for the transportation of the product of the lumber 

 mills and camps, and last but not least, furnishing a large pro- 

 portion of the revenues of the Provincial Governments. 



♦Read at the Forestry Convention, Vancouver, B.C., Sept. 27, 1906. 



