1398 



Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1917 



product, placed a value of about 

 $21,000,000 yearly upon its lumber, 

 lath and shingle production in 1915. 

 Its productive forest areas are from 

 70 to 90 millions of acres containing 

 approximately 150 billion feet of 

 merchantable timber. White pine, 

 spruce, red pine, jack pine, balsam, 

 fir, tamarack, hemlock, white cedar 

 and hardwoods are present, for the 

 greater part in abundance. In 1915 

 white pine formed 60 per cent, of the 

 timber cut, hemh ck over 10 per cent., 

 red pine 10 per cent, spruce 8 per 

 cent., maple, elm, and twenty other 

 species the remaining 12 per cent. 



Quebec contains about 80 to 100 

 million acres of merchantable saw tim- 

 ber, the coniferous species being about 

 the same as in Ontario. The value 

 of the 1915 lumber, lath and shingle 

 production was $19,196,000. Esti- 

 mates place Quebec's saw timber at 

 about 160 bilUon feet. Quebe 's 

 white pine represents 15 per cent, 

 of the total cut against Ontario's 60 

 per cent, while spruce in Ontario was 

 but 8 per cent, of the total cut as 

 against 55 per cent, in Quebec. The 

 claim is sometimes made that the 

 two provinces have approximately 

 the same values in white pine, al- 

 though statistical proof is largely 

 lacking. 



New Brunswick's forest area is a 

 little over 12,000,000 acres with stand- 

 ing timber of about 22 billion feet, 

 spruce being the wood of greatest 

 utilization. Nova Scotia has about 

 10 billion feet of timber covering 

 more than 5,700,000 acres, the tree 

 species differing little from those of 

 New Brunswick. 



Canada's Future as a Producer of 

 Wood 



As to the future of the lumber in- 

 dustry in Canada, few can doubt 

 that with better trade organization, 

 with aggressive sales methods to meet 

 the increasing inroads of wood sub- 

 stitutes, and the searching out and 

 cultivating of markets — with these 

 elements of efficiency and balance 

 more fully developed, the lumber in- 

 dustry will have an open road to 

 great expansion and prosperity. To 

 particularize on such an experience 



as that of British Columbia lumber 

 trade during the past three years 

 merely re-states the need for better 

 trade organization, and adequate 

 transportation facilities to take care 

 not only of foreign export orders, 

 but the demands from the prairies 

 as well. Similar remedies are called 

 for in the East as in British Columbia. 

 While export orders of British 

 Columbia timbers to Australia, New 

 Zealand and South Africa have been 

 steadily mounting, the evidence of 

 H. R. MacMillan, former Timber 

 Trade Commissioner for Canada, who 

 recently visited the Antipodes, is 

 that so firmly established in public 

 favor are timber from the Baltic 

 states and from the United States 

 that Canada must exert prodigious 

 effort to take her place as a serious 

 competitor, although the war has 

 opened the door for valued introduc- 

 tions. At present, British Columbia 

 woods are praclically unknown by 

 name in many of the markets and 

 sometimes grossly underestimated as 

 to quality and adaptability. 



What Canada Expects 



In total exports of sawn lumber, 

 the country now ranks well up to 

 fourth place in the Hst of all nations. 

 We send beyond our borders about 

 forty-three million dollars worth a 

 year. About $10,000,000 of that 

 amount goes yearly to the United 

 Kingdom. Exports of wood in all- 

 its forms of manufacture (including 

 pulp and paper) were valued at $62,- 

 000,000 for the year ending March 

 31st, 1916. While many lumbermen 

 anticipate a great demand for lumber 

 from the United Kingdom. France, 

 and Belgium after the war, the com- 

 parative distances of Baltic and Can- 

 adian sources of wood supply have 

 tempered the expectations of others, 

 for the average freight rate from Bal- 

 tic ports to England is 13^d. as against 

 4d. from Canadian ports. 

 " The United States lumberman is, 

 to an unrecognized degree, the arbiter 

 of the Canadian price. One may 

 study the barometer of United States 

 lumber production and see at every 

 occasion when production overtops 

 home consumption, or when the mag- 



