1166 



Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1917 



tamarac already on it will have a 

 much better chance to grow. The 

 question of reforestation in our coun- 

 try must be left in the main to nature. 

 If that fact is admitted, I am con- 

 fident that a very little drainage of 

 our bogs at a slight expenditure of 

 monev will work wonders. 



DISCOURAGES SPECULATION 



A bill entitled "An act to amend 

 the 'Forest Act' " has been intro- 

 duced in the British Columbia Legis- 

 lature by Hon. T. D. Patullo, Min- 

 ister of Lands. The act contains a 

 number of amendments to the exist- 

 ing act, which include regulations re- 

 garding the sale of crown timber for 

 the manufacture of wood pulp. One 

 clause states that in connection with 

 such sales the Minister may require 

 proof that the intending purchaser 

 has spent not less than $350,000 upon 

 the erection of a wood pulp and paper 

 mill to be operated exclusively in 

 connection with the limits under con- 

 sideration; or, alternately, may re- 

 quire the intending purchaser to 

 furnish a bond of $50,000 and other 

 suitable guarantees for the expendi- 

 ture of not less than $350,000 for the 

 erection of such mill, of which not less 

 than $100,000 shah be expended dur- 

 ing each of the first two years of the 

 license. Pulp licenses shall be limited 

 by the output capacity of such mill, 

 and shall not comprise at any one 

 time more than thirty years' supply 

 of pulpwood for the said mill. 



4. — »- 



ABOUT BLACK SPRUCE 



I 

 1 



The extent and value of black 

 spruce in Canada are frequently 

 underestimated. The following cor- 

 respondence appearing in the "Pulp 

 and Paper Magazine," Montreal, will 

 interests readers of the Forestry 

 Journal: 



"In the March 22nd issue of the 

 "Pulp & Paper Magazine" I read an 

 interesting article by P. L. Buttrick, 

 on "The Red Spruce." In this con- 

 nection may I call attention to the 

 statement regarding black spruce 



(picea mariana). Mr. Buttrick says, 

 " . . . it is a small and straggling 

 tree, mostly confined to swamps and 

 semi-barren hill-tops. Its only value 

 lies in the occasional specimens which 

 happen to get large enough to be 

 harvested with red or white spruce." 



Speaking of the forests of Quebec 

 and Ontario I should like to add that 

 though black spruce does grow as 

 "a small and straggling tree" on 

 "semi-barren hill-tops and swamps," 

 there are also thousands of square 

 miles of black spruce forests running 

 anywhere from 4 to 40 cords per acre. 

 In the clay belt and flat lands of 

 Northern Ontario and Quebec, prob- 

 ably 60 to 75 per cent, of the spruce 

 is black spruce— a vast quantity con- 

 sidering that there must be more than 

 two hundred million (200,000,000) 

 cords of pulpwood in that region. 



The black spruce is of course small- 

 er than the white spruce, but the 

 mature trees in the average black 

 spruce swamp attain a height of 60 

 to 75 feet, giving 40 to 70 feet of tim- 

 ber, measuring 9 to 13 inches at butt, 

 and 4 inches at top. In the virgin 

 forests of the north as many as 500 

 to 600 black spruce trees (of 7-in. to 

 14-in. diam.) per acre have been 

 counted. 



Regarding the red spruce, Mr. 

 Buttrick refers to it as the "epinette 

 rouge" of the French Canadian. Now, 

 strange to say, the French Canadian, 

 when they speak of "epinette rouge" 

 do not mean red spruce, but they 

 have reference to tamarac. Epinette 

 rouge is known as far north as the 

 James Bay region, hundreds of miles 

 out of the red spruce localities. 

 "Epinette rouge sec," or dry tamarac, 

 furnishes the best camp fire fuel of 

 the north country. — R. 0. Sweezey. 



SUNSHINE IN THE FOREST 



"Sunshine" is a beautifully printed 

 and arranged magazine issued by the 

 Sun Life Assurance Company from 

 the head ofTice in Montreal. The 

 last issue gave first place to articles 

 on the forest resources of Canada, 

 copiously illustrated, and clearly pre- 

 sented. Editors Emory and Steed- 

 man merit congratulations. 



