LUMBERING 



been issued in the early 'sixties,' and by the 'seventies' the lumbering 

 industry was one of the first magnitude. During the season 1872-73, 

 the cut of pine from this watershed amounted to some 120 million feet ; 

 last season probably less than 10 million feet of pine were cut. The 

 same season saw the close of operations by the largest pine lumbering 

 concern of the region ; probably but four concerns remain able to scrape 

 together a million feet of pine yearly. Five years will see the end of 

 the pine so far as commercial quantities are concerned. With the 

 exhaustion of the remaining softwood stands, mainly hemlock, in cer- 

 tain portions of Stanhope, Sherborne, Gal way, Cavendish, and An- 

 struther, the lumbering of coniferous species will be practically at an 

 end, and this will be within a decade. The present limit holders realize 

 this and are buying all they can from settlers. One mill was found 

 whose sole supply of logs came from discarded logs of former operations 

 and pine 'rampikes' dead many years. It will be seen from the table 

 on page 26 that the coniferous areas in existence constitute but 4.5 

 per cent of the forested area ; the areas of mixed composition likewise 

 aggregate only 6.1 per cent ; and not all of either these two types is 

 mature timber. 



At present there are ten lumbering concerns whose operations 

 within the watershed exceed one million feet of logs a year each. The 

 total cut in 1911-12 was in the neighbourhood of 40 to 45 million 

 feet, distributed approximately as follows : pine 40 per cent, hem- 

 lock 20 per cent, with small amoimts of spruce, basswood, ash, elm, 

 cedar, birch, balsam, maple, tamarack and beech. Probably 10 

 million feet of this came from the semi-virgin townships in the north 

 owned in fee simple, with which we are not here concerned. As al- 

 ready intimated, the 191 2-13 cut will show much less pine. The bulk 

 of the logs are sawed at Marmora, Peterborough, Lakefield, Lindsay, 

 and Coboconk. 



Besides the saw-log industry there is a small production of cedar 

 poles, posts and cross ties, shipped principally from Coehill, Kin- 

 moimt and Haliburton. But the opinions of those engaged in the 

 business confirm the field observations that the cedar swamps are nearly 

 exhausted. Cedar is a species of such slow growth that its extinction, 

 commercially, is unavoidable. 



A small amount, probably not over 3,000 cords of spruce, balsam 

 and poplar, cut by settlers, is shipped out of the region, mostly from 

 Kinmount and Gooderham, for manufacture into pulp and paper. 

 Some of this goes to CampbeUford, Thorold, etc., but the bulk of it 

 goes to Pennsylvania despite the long transportation. This is pro- 

 bably owing to the fact that the majority of the Ontario mills possess 



