Who Owns the Forest Lands 85 



first-class laud ami in this laaniier certain areas passed into private ownership. 

 Various other timber lauils were included among the 8.000.000 acres granted 

 to railway companies in aid of construction. Today, there are in private hands 

 soiiif STO.OOO acres, and in the jiosscssion of tlir- E. and N. Railway Co., some 

 :^7.').000 acrt's. while the Canadian Pacitie Hallway Company controls a very 

 large area, the acreage of which has not been made public. 



Summing up tiiese facts, we iiiul that 15.000.000 acres of 'merchantable 

 timber land' are under the province's jurisdiction, and 11.000,000 additional 

 aci-t's of forest land of unascertained contents are administered by tiie 

 Dominion Forestry Branch. Of this total of. roughly 2(i, 000,000 acres in the 

 l)rovincial boundaries, there are a little over 1,200.000 acres of timber land 

 under private ownership, not counting the lands held by the C. P. R. Over all 

 the rest, however, the license system i)revails and the govenunent is master of 

 the future. 



TJIE CASI-J L\ OMAh'IO AM) (Jl I-JIiEC. 



In Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, of course, all the forest resources 

 are controlled and directed by the Dominion. Ontario, according to Mr. 

 Aubrey White's figures given in 1913, contains an area of 140.000.000 acres of 

 timber: 4G. 000.000 acres have been surveyed, wliile 94.000.000 acres have not 

 had a surveyor's line over them yet. Of the 4G. 000. 000 acres only 24 millions 

 have passed (under lease) out of the possession of the Crown. The amount of 

 truly alienated timber land in Ontario is practically nothing. No trace of 

 pi'ixately-ownetl forest area can be found in any of the authorities consulted. 

 Wliile the British Columbia leases run from sixteen to twenty-one years, with 

 twenty-year leases the rule in New Brunswick, the custom in Ontario and Que- 

 bec is to give a yearly lease, renewable by custom, year after year. So long as 

 the regulations are lived np to on the part of the lessee the lease is practically 

 perpetual. 



In Quebec, which holds the largest forest areas of all the provinces, only 

 six million acres (Hon. Jules Allard's estimate) of forest land are held in 

 private ownership and these are chiefly on the seignories. There is a balance 

 of over 45.000.000 aci-es of lands under timber leases, and 77,000.000 acres in 

 the po.sses.sion of the Crown and absolutely available. Therefore, one may 

 fairly say, Quebec has parted title with only six million out of 128 million acres 

 of forest land. 



IX rilE MAI! I TIME PROVINCES. 



New Brunswick and Nova Scotia do not dui^licate the conditions found in 

 Ontario and Quebec as regards i)rivate ownership. In New Brunswick there 

 are. roughly speaking, four million acres of forest land held in fee simple and 

 eight million acres by the Crown. In Nova Scotia, Di'. Fernow's estimate of 

 the actual green forest area is five million acres and the part which has not been 

 sold outi-ight (mostly in small parcels) is but 1,500,000 acres. 



In the Forest Reserves of the Dominion are approximately 17,000,000 acres 

 whieh ai-e protected against alienation. 



On a rough and ready estimate, it would aj^jjear that about 14 million 

 acres of forest lands in Canada are held in fee simple and nearly seven-and-a- 

 half millions of this are accounted for by Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 



When one considers that only one-fourth of the forest lands of the United 

 States remain to the credit of the nation, three-fourths having been permanent- 

 ly disposed of and placed beyond effective control, it is plain that our provin- 

 cial administrations face a respon.sibility in the perpetuation of our forest riches 

 "which our American neighbors look upon with belated envy and amazement. 



