74 CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 



for producing commercial timber which reduces the area of the forest lands of 

 this division to about eighty million acres. 



The principal trees are the white spruce, the black spruce, the jack pine, the 

 aspen and a little white birch and tamarack. 



All this is still unexploited, but the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific 

 Railway will have a great influence on the development of this part of the Prov- 

 ince of Quebec, and the forest industry will soon take root there. 



Summarising the results, it will be seen that the forest lands of Quebec include: 



5,400,000 acres belonging to the farmer. 

 45,000,000 acres leased to the lumbermen. 

 80,000,000 acres still virgin. 



This makes a total of 130,400,000 acres in forest. Now, let us see what hopes 

 we may found upon these immense forest resources. 



FARMER'S WOOD-LOT PROBLEMS. 



The farmer's wood-lots can hardly suffice for the actual needs of the villages 

 where they are situated. They will be of no account in the expected development. 

 Nevertheless, though the farmers cannot expect to produce wood for export, they 

 may, if they manage their wood-lots wisely, draw from them a satisfactory income. 



For them, 1 should advise the following mode of procedure; 1st, to practise 

 thinning in the young wood in order to clear the trunks; 2nd, to cut all trees which 

 give indications of decay; 3rd, to guard against fire; 4th, to utilize promptly all the 

 dead trees, those rooted up by the wind, and those injured by insects or by fungi; 

 5th, to favour the development of the most valuable trees in order to secure a timber 

 forest. 



Reforestation must also be employed to fill up the gaps in the forests and to use 

 for woodland again the land not adapted to agriculture. In the environs of Lan- 

 oraie one sees fine land being ruined by moving sands, when it would be so easy to 

 combat the evil by planting them with trees. The thing is not impossible. The 

 good success obtained by the inhabitants of Oka supports my suggestion. Accord- 

 ing to the census of 1901, there were nearly two million acres in our province which 

 had been abandoned by the farmers and were uncultivated. Wood sells so well 

 now that it would be a good and safe investment to plant these lands. Our farm- 

 ers may well study this question. 



This leads me to remind you that the Gouin Government, wishing to encourage 

 the farmers, established last autumn a nursery of forest trees at Berthierville. 

 In 1910 we shall be ready to lend assistance in the work of reforestation. 



LUMBERMEN'S DIFFICULTIES. 



If we pass now to tne second group, we find ourselves confronted by a most 

 serious problem and one which for several years has been the subject of ardent 

 polemics. I am speaking of the conflict between the colonists and the lumbermen. 



It would take too long to discuss this question here, it has just been impartially 

 discussed by Mgr. Laflamme in a lecture given on the 5th of last March, at Quebec, 

 but I may be permitted to say that if our lumbermen could afford to allow the 

 exploited tracts to reforest themselves it is certain that all would be ready to cut 

 their concessions more economically, to protect them efficiently against fire, and 

 to make the monetary sacrifices necessary to regenerate the forest stock. 



