Forestry in Canada. 



93 



fourth. The total net exports were 

 11,347,500,000 feet board measure. 

 Most of this was from Russia, Sweden, 

 Austria-Hungary, Norway and Rou- 

 mania. Russia was expected to increase 

 its export and probably also Sweden, 

 but the others were expected to decline, 

 and I understand that Sweden has not 

 kept up the promise of that time. The 

 net deficit in the European supply was 

 at that time, therefore, close to two 

 billion feet and it is certainly now much 

 greater. 



Future Prospects. 



If Canada is called on to supply any 

 great share of the deficiency of the pro- 

 duct in the United States and Europe — 

 and there is no place else to look — how 

 are we prepared to do it ? 



The quantity of pine estimated as 

 .standing in the Province of Ontario is 

 twenty billion feet and in the Province 

 of Quebec forty billion feet, the latter 

 probably an over-estimate when com- 

 pared with that of Ontario. The pine cut 

 of the United States last year was 

 4,192,708,000 feet board measure. The 

 pine cut of Michigan, Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota in 1892 was eight billion 

 feet board measure and is now two 

 and a half billion feet. To make up 

 even the shortage in the product of these 

 States would mean that our supply of 

 pine would last ten years. 



Outside of yellow and white birch, 

 maple and some red and burr oak, our 

 hardwood supply is gone and would 

 probably not total more than twenty 

 billion feet board measure. 



Of spruce, balsam and helmock suit- 

 able for liimber we may have a stand 

 of three hundred billion feet and the 

 British Columbia forests of fir, cedar, 

 spruce, pine and other western conifers 

 have been put at 320,000,000,000 feet. 



If the Dominion, including quan- 

 tities exported, reaches even half of the 

 production of the United States, the 

 supply of trees for lumber is far from 

 inexhaustible, and in fact the supply 

 of virgin forest could not last much over 

 fifty years, making no allowance for 

 growth in the meantime. 



There are large quantities of spruce, 

 balsam, and poplar in the northern 

 forests suitable for pulpwood but to 

 what extent they can be saved from 

 fire is uncertain. The distances are 

 great and the lands not easily accessible. 



The species in question are easily in- 

 jured by fire and in a dry year the 

 present methods of handling the situa- 

 tion are inadequate. 



Our great hope, however, for the im- 

 mediate future is in the saving of the 

 yoimg trees now well established or half 

 grown. If this is not done Canada can- 

 not retain supremacy as a forest 

 country. 



How Forests Influence Water 

 Supply. 



Another great purpose for which the 

 forests should be preserved is for their 

 influence on the water supply. What 

 degree of influence the forests have on , 

 the water supply is not determined. 

 Experiments to determine whether they 

 have any effect on precipitation have 

 been made in Europe with conflicting 

 results. German experiments leave the 

 question uncertain or decide it nega- 

 tively. French experimenters decide 

 that the forests do exert an influence. 

 One of the great difficulties in obtaining 

 accurate results is the defectiveness of 

 the rain gauges and the varying in- 

 fluences of the winds and other forces 

 on the quantities of water reaching 

 them. My own opinion is that con- 

 siderable areas of forest in a level 

 country have an influence, though 

 slight, due probably to the cooler 

 atmosphere over them in summer. 



Their sheltering effect on the snow- 

 fall in the spring and the mechanical 

 obstruction which the trees, roots and 

 cover of the forest floor present to the 

 run-off of water is undoubted, though 

 not unquestioned, and, thus assisting 

 towards the regularity of the stream 

 flow, present a strong argument for 

 their preservation. The use of water 

 for irrigation, domestic and municipal 

 purposes, and power plants is increas- 

 ing rapidly, and on the regularity of 

 the water supply the future prosperity 

 of many communities and the develop'- 

 ment of industries largely depend. In 

 the irrigation district of southern 

 Alberta and Saskatchewan I hope that 

 the observations of stream flow and 

 water supply which are being carried 

 on by the irrigation service, and which 

 are now being arranged on a somewhat 

 adequate basis, will be carried on co- 

 ordinately with the observations of the 

 forest oflRcers on the eastern slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains and in the Cypress 



