30 Forests and Trees 



shown 98,000 square miles to have been cleared for settlement 

 and 100,000 square miles to have been cut over by lumbermen, 

 leaving a timbered area yet untouched of 1,702,000 square miles. 

 Assuming the average of 3000 square feet per acre there should 

 yet remain 3279 billion board feet of timber in Canada at a very 

 conservative estimate. On the contrary the highest estimate 

 which has been made, that given by the Chairman of the Con- 

 servation Commission, the Hcncrablc Clifford Sifton, places 

 the amount cf saw-timber and pulpwocd in Canada at 494,600 

 million feet and noo millicn ccrds respectively." 



By converting the pulpwood into board feet, allowing 

 500 feet board measure for each cord, "it is found that there 

 are standing in Canada only 1094 billion feet of lumber, 

 including the very low grades. The difference between this 

 and the quantity which should yet remain is 2185 billion 

 feet." This quantity has been destroyed by forest fires. 



"It is a quantity so large as to be bcycnd ccmprehensicn ; 

 it is 437 times as much as is yearly cut in Canada ; it is 49 times 

 as much as the ccmbined yearly cut cf the North American 

 Continent, north of Mexico. It means that for every foot cf 

 timber that has ever been cut in Canada by lumbermen, at least 

 seven feet have been destroyed by re. If the stumpage value 

 is placed at the low sum of fifty cents per thousand feet (the 

 smallest royalty collected by any Canadian Government), the 

 loss to the public treasury has been $1,042,500,000. The actual 

 money loss to the country has been many times greater, as 

 several dollars are expended in legging, manufacturing, and ship- 

 ping every thousand feet of lumber." 



The figures given refer to the whole of Canada, and it 

 might be reasonably expected that its application would be 

 mostly to the older provinces. To those who have crossed 



