Canadian Foiesfrij Journal, November, 1917 



1399 



net of Canadian demand show? extra 

 vim, the American mill hurries car- 

 goes across the border. Canadian 

 prices must meet the competition, 

 and do. A quiet home demand in 

 Canada and keen trade openings in 

 the United States will, in turn, find 

 the Canadian lumberman bidding in 

 Uncle Sam's home towns. In this 

 way the meeting line of Canadian 

 and American competition swings 

 from side to side of the international 

 boundary. How this works out is 

 seen in the United States sales to 

 Canada of lumber and shingles am- 

 ounting in 1915 to $6,741,000 and 

 reaching as high as $14,328,000 in 

 1913. In the former year Canada 

 sold to the States lumber and shingles 

 valued at $22,279,891. The total 

 value of the Canadian lumber and 

 shingle production in 1915 was $69,- 

 750,000. 



The growth of Canadian agricul- 

 tural population and the opening up 

 of new districts, building of new 

 farms, homes, and towns, and the 

 parallel development of manufactur- 

 ing industries, will give a great and 

 steady impetus to the lumber de- 

 mand. We North Americans are the 

 greatest wood users on earth, con- 

 suming six or seven times the amount 

 per capita of the European. Our 

 rapid expansion of 'plant' accounts 

 only in part for this large discrepancy. 

 Wood in all its forms is a world staple, 

 the variety of uses for which are only 

 now being unfolded by scientific ex- 

 perimentation. It is not too much 

 to predict that within a very few years 

 a wide commercial use will be found 

 for practically every tree species 

 found in Canada and that what is 

 now termed a superfluity of poplar 

 or jack pme, for example, will be 

 counted in with the other rich assets 

 of the timbered areas. 



Canada Has Been Careless 

 There is no reason to doubt that 



the present status of the lumber 

 industry in Eastern Canada has been 

 very materially affected by the coun- 

 try-wide neglect of forest preserva- 

 tion measures. Costs of getting out 

 logs have risen steadily with the grow- 

 ing inaccessibility of the forest . That 

 this distancing of the wood supply 

 has been due first to forest fires, 

 few lumbermen will dispute. That 

 the methods of woods operations 

 have not been such as to perpetuate 

 tree growh of the more valuable 

 species on lands cut over, is another 

 factor equally applicable but not as 

 commonly admitted. Economy and 

 efficiency have tightened up the sys- 

 tem at the mill end, while as a rule 

 the methods at the woods end have 

 not changed essentially in genera- 

 tions. 



The more advanced lumbermen, 

 and particularly pulp mill operators 

 have long been cognizant of the de- 

 terioration of lumbered-over tracts, 

 knowing well that if the lands on 

 which the axe has fallen do not fully 

 recuperate, as under present cutting 

 methods they do not, every year 

 brings the industry and the whole 

 nation closer to timber exhaustion. 

 This question of proper cutting regu- 

 lations and rigid enforcement by the 

 governments is sure to constitute 

 one of the major issues to be reckoned 

 with by wood-using industries in the 

 near future. 



The fact is entirely obvious that 

 the hope of the lumber trade lies in 

 a perpetual source of raw materials 

 secured as cheaply as possible. Other- 

 wise, Canada's hope of export trade 

 in competition with those foreign 

 nations enforcing scientific care of 

 woodlands will be rendered vain, and 

 the home market will to a greater 

 degree be occupied by a less expensive 

 array of building substitutes, as con- 

 crete, steel, and asbestos. 



