CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 134 



it opens up the country, and provides a supply of labour and food stuffs. 

 To illustrate the amount of forest destruction that has been caused by tim- 

 ber thieves, it is only necessary to state that, out of 7,000,000 acres that 

 have been granted to settlers in recent years, in Quebec 2,000,000 acres are 

 already stripped and abandoned. The exportation of pulp wood has been 

 already stripped and abandoned. Those figures were given in the last 

 Dominion Census, and I venture^ to state that within another ten years those 

 same original 7,000,000 acres will show between five and six million stripped 

 and abandoned, and the balance of them second-class fanms. The exporta- 

 tion of pulp wood has been largely responsible for this destruction, because 

 it has offered the principal market for the timber thief. The consumer of 

 wood in a foreign country and at a distance, does not care how the wood is 

 obtained. I will say that in our case we have lost, I think, fully 10 per 

 cent, of our land to false settlers men who have come on that land under 

 the guise of settlers, and then stripped and abandoned it. 



Those figures were given in the last Dominion Census, and I venture to 

 state that within another ten years those same original 7,000,000 acres will 

 show between five and six million stripped and abandoned, and the balance 

 of them second-class farms. 



DELEGATE : In what district ? 



Ma. RIOKDAN : On the Lievre River in Quebec, flowing into the Ottawa. 

 There is none of that wood being exported from the country ; it is all going 

 to the saw mill. We have really suffered very little, but as men go from 

 the timber limits far away from the border, there are areas on the south 

 shore of the St. Lawrence in which five-sixths of the timber has been stolen 

 in that way. 



Also it is probable that the present Government regulations for the cutting 

 of timber will interfere to some extent with the carrying out of systems of 

 timber management based on our forestry investigation. These do not per- 

 mit the leaving of mature trees in an area cut over, although some of them 

 are necessary for seeding. They also do not permit of the cutting of trees 

 below a certain size on the stump although in many places trees reach 

 maturity below this size and sometimes even reach their maximum growth. 

 They do not permit the slashing of timber that is of no value commercially 

 although in many cases this would give room to timber that is of value 

 commercially. 



I am merely forecasting what may turn up. We don't know individually 

 what may turn up. We have been only a year and a half at it. 



The pulp and paper men of Canada have several times drawn down upon 

 themselves the accusation of grinding their own axes because they have 

 drawn the attention of the government to the exportation of pulp wood and 

 the disadvantages of it. It is perfectly obvious that the prohibition of this 

 export would serve the interests of those at present engaged in the prodiic- 



