68 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May -June, 1912. 



hardwoods ; to-day, as a result of 

 patient labour and co-operation over 

 sixty per cent, of the land is grow- 

 ing the highly profitable and rapid- 

 growing Norway spruce. What is to 

 hinder Canadians achieving a like 

 success on their reserves if they just 

 go after it in earnest and leave poli- 

 tics out ? 



The cluiotic conditions found on 

 Canada's reserves to-day are quite 

 similar in general to those of Europe 

 one hundred years ago. Like us, 

 they were then spending about one 

 cent per acre for protection and 

 maintenance and getting in return 

 an infinitesiiual revenue. But year 

 after year the Germans, for instance, 

 have been spending more money and 

 getting larger and larger net re- 

 turns. In 1909 the average expendi- 

 ture per acre over the entire gov- 

 ernment-managed forests of Ger- 

 many was some three dollars and 

 twenty five cents, while the financial 

 net revenue per acre was two dol- 

 lars and twenty five cents — a net 

 money return of two dollars and 

 twenty five cents per acre, quite out- 

 side of all those enormous auxiliary 

 forest benefits which nourish the 

 very life of the nation, cjuite outside, 

 too, of the living made by the many 

 thousands of workers which is re- 

 presented in the expenditure of that 

 other three dollars and twenty five 

 cents. Do not forget, however, the 

 long initial period of expenditure. 

 of sacrifice and of patient experi- 

 ments, of which this grand result is 

 the fruits. 



What Will It Pay? 



Let us see now about what the 

 Riding JMountain reserve could do as 

 a wealth producer and consumer of 

 labor were it covered, say, even with 

 white spruce — a native species that 

 flourishes there — and we had reach- 

 ed that stage of forestry where the 

 annual cut can be based on the an- 

 nual growth. The public forestland 

 of France — much of it being thin Al- 

 pine soils and in no way comparable 

 to our rich, though stony, Riding 



Mountain soils — is producing an 

 average of 240 board feet per acre 

 per year; the Austrian forests, 300; 

 the German forests, 380. Accurate 

 measurements taken on the Pacific 

 Coast show that the climate and soil 

 there will groM' six to eight hundred 

 board feet per acre per year. Surely 

 then, the Riding Mountain w^ould 

 grow two hundred. The total for 

 the reserve would thus reach, in 

 round numbers, 200,000,000 board 

 feet a year. That quantity would 

 tax the combined sawing capacity of 

 the great mills of Ottawa and Hull. 

 It would annually supply to each 

 one of fifty saw-mills as much timber 

 as is now being cut each year for all 

 purposes over the whole reserve. 

 The net annual return derived, if we 

 figure stumpage at only five dollars 

 per thousand feet, board measure, 

 would be, on the German 1909 ratio, 

 at least 400.000 dollars. On the 

 basis of the forest labor employed in 

 Saxony, the production and crude 

 manufacture of the above-mentioned 

 crop would support a population of 

 ten thousand workers. 



The timbered area of Nova Scotia 

 is only two and a half times the size 

 of this reserve — yet no fewer than 

 240 saw-mills are now supported by 

 its annual cut, and this cut promises 

 to be maintained and increased by 

 the progressive forest policy being 

 adopted in that province. Again, in 

 Great Britain public opinion is be- 

 ginning to clamor for an active na- 

 tional forest policy. Take, for in- 

 stance, the following statement is- 

 sued in February, 1911, by the Gen- 

 eral Federation of Trade Unions in 

 the United Kingdom : 



'To absorb surplus labor an urgent 

 appeal is made for atforestation. The 

 employment furnished by the pres- 

 ent uses — mostly grazing — to which 

 our wild land is devoted, may be 

 taken to average one man per 1,000 

 acres. This does not represent one 

 tenth of the permanent employment 

 afforded by the maintenance of a 

 similar area under forest. The labor 



