Canadian Forestrij Journal, Janudii/, 1U17 



933 



States does not begin to benefit Can- 

 ada as much as if that cord of natural 

 product had been kept here for pur- 

 poses of manufacture. Protection 

 against fire, however, was the main 

 factor to-day in conservation, "We 

 will gain more to-day by preserving 

 our forests from fire than by re- 

 forestration," was the way Mr. Wel- 

 don expressed himself. "After all, 

 fire is destroying more timber than 

 the lumberman is taking out, and if 

 efTorts are concentrated on stopping 

 this waste by an improved system of 

 fire-ranging the country will be great- 

 ly benefited and enriched in the days 

 to come." 



The future of Canada in the paper 

 industry is unUmited. "In ten years," 

 he said, "I venture to say that all 

 the newsprint in America will be 



manufactured on this side of the line. 

 We have in Canada unlimited quan- 

 tities of wood and an abundance of 

 water and water-power. This coun- 

 try owns 10 per cent, of the world's 

 supply of pulpwood, and yet we are 

 producing only about five per cent, 

 of the world's paper. The United 

 States has eighteen per cent, of the 

 world's pulpwood supply, and makes 

 about forty-two per cent, of the 

 paper. There is only one conclusion 

 to such a situation." The big de- 

 velopment, Mr. Weldon thinks, will 

 be in newsprint, which offers the 

 greatest opportunity to Canada for 

 expansion. The scene of develop- 

 ment in the immediate future, he 

 thinks, is bound to be in territory 

 lying directly south and east of Hud- 

 son's Bay. 



NEW METHODS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN 

 FOREST PRODUCTIVENESS 



An Instructive Survey of Present Forest Management 

 as Shown in Everyday Commercial Operations 



{Excerpts from an Address by Ellwood Wilson, F.E., before Technical 

 Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association) 



Our forests have been treated like 

 mines from which we expected to 

 draw all the raw material we wanted 

 and if we ever gave the matter of 

 their exhaustion a thought it was to 

 say, "well the young trees are grow- 

 ing up all the time to replace those 

 we cut." Unfortunately this is not 

 the case for in a virgin forest the 

 trees of difTerent species which make 

 up the stand have reached a state of 

 equilibrium where the growth is bal- 

 anced by the death and decay. On 

 cut over lands, the shallow rooted 

 spruce and balsam trees after being 

 thinned out blow down in large quan- 

 tities, the letting in of a large amount 

 of light gives the hardwoods an oppor- 

 tunity of which they quickly avail 

 themselves, to seed in, and the young 

 hardwoods grow up so quickly that 

 they crowd out the softwoods. In 

 our examinations of cut over lands 



we find that if left to grow for thirty 

 years they will not yield more than 

 three cords per acre which will make 

 the cost of cutting them very high. 



In Europe more than 100 years ago 

 the same conditions that exist on this 

 continent to-day confronted the peo- 

 ple and after much experiment and 

 many failures they learned how to 

 look after their forests and we have 

 the benefit of their experience. If 

 we are wise we shall take warning 

 and follow their example and adapt- 

 ing their knowledge to our difTerent 

 conditions we will take time by the 

 fore lock. 



Stocktaking Needed. 



Already there is anxiety in the 

 United States about the supply of 

 pulpwood for the future and many 

 firms are drawing on Canada and 

 others have already provided them- 



