512 Canadian Forestry Journal, May, ipi6. 



against a wooden wall ; you imagine 3'ou see the scores of implement fac- 

 tories carefully fitting these pieces of ash and maple and elm to their casts 

 of steel. 



Surely, you say, this is an age of zvood. What railway could move, 

 what farmer could sow or reap, what townsman could more than eke out 

 an existence without the helping hand of forests? 



You are on the train again. That thought about the wood supply of 

 the Western Provinces for farm, for home, for transportation, has tem- 

 porarily been laid aside. The engine whistles shrilly. Here evidently is a 

 coal mining town. Hundreds of homes are spread about ; there is a wind- 

 ing street of stores. 



More Than a Localised Question. 



A mine manager steps aboard. He is an old acquaintance and you 

 soon have him in conversation. It does not take long to announce your 

 speculation about the need of wood to carry on the business of Canada 

 West. 



"Of course," you say, "this is a farmer's and a merchant's question. 

 You mining men doubtless see nothing to get alarmed about." 



"Nothing, eh?" his face lightens up with surprise. "Let me tell you. 

 To get a single ton of coal out of the ground requires two lineal feet of 

 timber for pit props. Where do we get it from? Right at the doorstep of 

 the mine, so to speak; for mine timbers cannot be hauled long distances, 

 or the price of coal would be prohibitive. 



"Thirty years ago Alberta and Saskatchewan turned out about 1,600 

 tons of coal. By the last returns. Alberta alone is producing yearly over 

 three million tons and Saskatchewan over 175,000 tons. That means -we 

 need about six and a half million lineal feet of timber a year. Do you know 

 where we're going to get it?" 



You confess that you hope the country has sufficient to keep the coal 

 mines running. 



"But that is not meeting the problem fair and square," opposes the 

 mine manager. "The Geological Survey says that Alberta possesses a 

 million million tons of lignite coal, Saskatchewan over 59 billion tons, and 

 Manitoba 160 million tons. Wonderful resource, say you? But wonderful 

 and valuable only as it can be set to work. What sets it to work? an 

 abundant and cheap supply of mine timbers in the neighborhood of the 

 mines. The biggest perplexity of many of our W^estern Canada coal min- 

 ing companies is not market or transportation or tariff, but the future sup- 

 ply of near-at-hand mine timbers." 



Nezv Industries Demand More Coal. 



"The huge increase in coal consumption in our Western Provinces is 

 due not only to the advancing population but to the incoming of new 

 industries and extension of railways. Indeed the coal production is out of 

 all proportion to settlement. In thirty years, population in Alberta and 

 Saskatchewan multiplied over twenty-three times, while the output of the 

 western coal mines multiplied 2,000 times. In a very few years the present 

 coal mining plants will be taxed to their utmost capacity. What follows? 

 They add to their plants, of course. But can they lay their hands on local 

 supplies of mine timbers as easily as they can get boilers and conveyors? 

 I very much doubt it. The mine managers and shareholders and workmen 

 also doubt it. This business of mine props is staring the West in the face. 

 What are we going to do about it?" . E _ 



