72 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



foresee that our Province will be an important factor in the world supply of this 

 natural - product, so necessary and so indispensable wood. 



I have attempted to give you a hasty glimpse of the brilliant perspective of the 

 future of our forest industry in order to emphasize more strongly the importance 

 of the reforms which it necessitates. Now, if you please, let us consider how much 

 forest remains to us and what measures we ought to take to realize our ambitions. 



Having granted that the administration and exploitation of a woodland depends 

 entirely on the will of him who owns it, I have classified our forest lands, according 

 to the character of their owners, into three groups. 



PRIVATE HOLDINGS. 



The wooded lands belonging to individual owners first claim our attention. 

 They form a grand total of five million acres (census of 1901). These lands are 

 generally the property of farmers, that is of -small proprietors. One might also 

 say small forests for the area of these lands rarely exceeds a hundred acres, save 

 for some few exceptions, such as the beautiful forest belonging to the Messrs. Joly 

 de Lotbiniere. To this group belong the maple groves of which we are so proud. 

 These woods occupy the poorest or most rocky of soils, that is to say, those unfit 

 for agriculture. They are found sometimes isolated and sometimes grouped, like 

 the wood which extends from Terrebonne to Berthier, and are the last vestiges 

 of the mighty forest which formerly covered the central plain of the St. Lawrence. 

 We had here the most beautiful forests of pine, spruce and cedar, and also of oak, 

 elm, ash, beech, cherry, maple and other woods. The growth of villages, unneces- 

 sary clearing and prevalent forest fires are the chief causes of the disappearance of 

 this great wealth. 



The scarcity of wood which begins to make itself felt in our parishes, and es- 

 pecially in our cities, has induced the farmers to more thoroughly exploit their 

 wood lands. From them comes in great part the firewood, now and then logs for 

 the local saw-mill, and the pulp wood. The use of the maples for the manufacture 

 of sugar and of maple syrup adds greatly to the value of these lots. Moreover the 

 price of good wood land has greatly increased, and in our old parishes some are 

 valued as high as $50.00 an arpent, (about an acre), that is to say, nearly as high 

 as the best agricultural soils. 



TIMBEK LIMITS. 



The second group includes all the forest concessions made by the Provincial 

 Government to individuals or to companies. These concessions are generally 

 called timber limits. 



The territories under timber license consist of about forty-five million acres. 

 Beginning at the boundaries of our villages, they extend, on the north side nearly 

 to the sources of the various affluents of the St. Lawrence, and, on the south side, 

 they often extend to the very frontiers of the province. 



The forestal concessions occupy, then, a large part of our country; generally 

 the most mountainous, such as the Laurentides, the Notre Dame Mountains, and 

 the Shickschock Mountains. The forests of this group are of a very variable 

 character ; the soft woods predominating. The pines of the valley of the Ontaonais, 

 the cedar of the Gaspe peninsula, and the spruces of Lake St. John, and the high 

 St. Maurice are characteristic of these different regions. To the conifers which I 

 have just enumerated, must be added the balsam fir, the hemlock and the tamarack; 



