48 



CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



all the small rivers. The logs were sawed into the required thickness and 

 width at these mills, made into rafts and floated down the main rivers to 

 the place of loading, where they were trimmed at the ends and surveyed. 

 These water mills have now become things of the past, and I do not sup- 

 pose that on any of the streams which formerly produced the necessary 

 power to operate one of these mills, except during one or two months in 

 the year sufficient power could now be produced to turn a wheel, The cut- 

 ting away of the heavy timber at the heads of the streams, the clearing of 

 the land for farming purposes, and the effect of fires, have, I believe, con- 

 tributed largely to this condition. I would instance, for example, the Bay- 

 du-Vin River, in the County of Northumberland, where a large business 

 was formerly done with a water mill, now rotting down. I could mention 

 other streams in my own county, and I have no doubt there are more in 

 the other northern counties of the Province as well. Nor is the effect of 

 this clearing of lands at the heads of the streams confined alone to the 

 \vater power. Its injurious effects are felt by almost every operator who 

 is obliged to drive his logs down the smaller streams. In former years,. 

 they, as a rule, got a steady run of water for weeks. Now there is gen- 

 erally a rapid rush of water and a gradual fall, and unless men and ap- 

 pliances are at hand to take advantage of this early freshet, great risks of 

 stranding the drive are run. This is a matter which may well command 

 the attention and consideration of the Commission of Conservation. 



Steam power for the manufacture of spruce was also introduced, and 



gradually the water power mills gave way almost entirely to the steam 



power mills, erected at the centres of population. I believe the first steam 



power saw mill was built at Chatham about the year 1836, and engineers 



and other workmen were brought from the other side of the Atlantic to- 



superintend the erection. This mill was not capable of product more 



than twenty thousand or twenty-five thousand superficial feet per day, vet 



so limited was the knowledge of the extent and capabilities of the forest' at 



hat it was predicted that from seven to ten vears would com- 



ure of ,nrn A ^' ^ that time tO the P resent ^V, the manufac- 



u tin ied TnH a Pme | IIJt0 alS / nd b ards HaS g ne n; mills have been 

 new and improved machinery has been introduced to such 



^^ alone has in one 



be removed -KlS^^S,^ tO the / aCt that * COuld rot 

 extent, the trees ar rcmovec UnH ?' T *?*** when ' to a lar S e 



of wood is exceed ng yT^ited 1^ v"^" ^,-^' the market for th[s class 

 ever, an advantage to the o^t to h g r npr fitable - Tt '"' how ' 

 that extent so mi f ch Si5 * 



