Forestry at the British Association Meeting. 



Before the Agricvtlture Section of the 

 British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science (which met in Winnipeg, 

 Man., on Aug. 23rd to Sept. 1st), the 

 morning of Aug. 3 1st was devoted to the 

 reading and discussion of papers relating 

 to forestry topics. 



Of these Prof. Somerville's paper, of 

 which it was remarked that "nothing 

 more masterly, or showing a broader 

 grasp of world conditions, has been pre- 

 sented to the Agriculture Section this 

 year " is given in fvill elsewhere in this 

 issue . 



A paper on the insects affecting 

 Canadian forests, prepared by Prof. W. 

 Lochhead, of Macdonald College, Ste. 

 Anne de Bellevue, P.Q., was read, in his 

 absence, by Prof. Snell, of the same in- 

 stitution. 



Prof. Lochhead deplored the fact that 

 HO comprehensive survey of Canada's 

 timber resources had been undertaken 

 by any of the governments, either 

 Dominion or provincial, and that the 

 matter was thus largely problematical 

 and they had to rely for data as to the 

 relative importance of insect pests upon 

 data gathered by U. S. experts in the 

 forests of that country and proceed by 

 inference after allowing for differences 

 of climate and conditions. The observa- 

 tions of forest rangers and timber 

 cruisers were another source of informa- 

 tion, but these were meagre and un- 

 reliable. 



"The Forests of Canada" was the 

 title of a paper written by Mr. R. H. 

 Campbell, Superintendent of Forestry, 

 and read by Mr. A. Knechtel. The writer 

 divided the forests of Canada into five 

 groups, namely: (1) those of southern 

 Ontario; (2) the forests on the southern 

 slope of the Laurentian watershed of 

 Ontario and Quebec; (3) the forests of 

 the Maritime Provinces; (4) the sub- 

 arctic forests of the Hudson Bay and 

 Arctic drainage basins, and (5) the 

 British Columbia forests. 



The first of these divisions had com- 

 prised an area of 12,000.000 acres; the 

 hardwood forests that had covered it 

 were now gone forever. The second 



area, the great pine district, had com- 

 prised 100,000,000 acres of forest, some- 

 times of pure white pine, sometimes of 

 white pine mixed with spruce, balsam, 

 fir, hemlock and Norway and jack pine. 

 In the province of Ontario it was esti- 

 mated that twenty billion feet of 

 this was left; this was the only official 

 estimate of the region. 



Of the Maritime forests the following 

 was the estimate: Southern Quebec, 

 5,000,000 acres; New Brunswick, 8,000- 

 000 acres; Nova Scotia, 4,000,000 acres. 

 Most of the timber was coniferous. 



The sub-arctic forest belt had a 

 length of three thousand miles and an 

 average breadth of two hundred miles. 

 Eight species made up this forest, 

 namely, white and black spruce, Bank- 

 sian pine, tamarack, aspen and balsam 

 poplar, paper birch and balsam fir. 

 There was an enormou^ quantity of 

 pulpwood in the district. 



The forests of British Columbia were 

 estimated to cover 182,000,000 acres, 

 and contained, according to an unofficial 

 estimate, three hundred billion feet of 

 saw-timber and probably (together with 

 the forests of the Yukon Territory) 

 three hundred million cords of pulp- 

 wood. Many species found in British 

 Columbia (e.g., Douglas fir, yellow 

 cypress, Pacific yew and Sitka spruce) 

 were not found elsewhere in the Domin- 

 ion. 



The present production of Canada 

 annually was about ten billion feet board 

 measure of all wood products, of which 

 four billion would be timber of a size 

 suitable for sawing into lumber, while 

 the total area of merchantable timber 

 probably had a stand of five hundred to 

 six hundred billion feet board measure. 

 The quantity of pulpwood was large and 

 might equal one billion cords. 



Mr. Campbell concluded by urging 

 more care in the preservation of forests 

 that remained and the afforestation of 

 denvided areas. 



The papers aroused considerable dis- 

 cussion, among those taking part being 

 Mr. T. A. Burrows, who gave some in- 

 teresting particulars as to Canadian 

 methods of lumbering. 



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