Canadian Forestry Journal, September, rpi6 



731 



out — were shipped through United 

 States firms, billed as American 

 lumber. Another fact which im- 

 pressed itself upon me was that the 

 San Francisco firms which do the 

 great bulk of the export business 

 from this coast are steadily going 

 after the business and getting it. 



U. S. Uppermost. 



" 'I must confess it made me al- 

 most indignant when I saw, practi- 

 cally everywhere I went, that the 

 lumber, including British Colum- 

 bia's product, is sold through United 

 States firms. The importers of the 

 countries did not know that any of 

 it came from this province. We 

 have the raw materials, but sadly 

 lack organization to sell it to the 

 world. In the last twelve years in 

 Australia our lumber exports have 

 fallen from 32 per cent, of the total 

 imports to less than three per cent. 

 Then the business was done by 

 schooners, and the mills here could 

 take the risk of chartering such ves- 

 sels. Now the business is done in 

 steamers operating by the trip or on 

 time charter, and carrying a large 

 shipment on each trip. In San 

 Francisco and other Pacific Coast 

 ports in the United States the ex- 

 porters have organized and made a 

 study of the export situation ; have 

 steadily gone after the business of 

 the entire Coast. They control the 

 charters, and practically what busi- 

 ness British Columbia gets is by 

 their consent.' 



Empire Sentiment. 



"Concerning the future Mr. Mac- 

 Millan had this to say : 



" 'My trip convinces me that the 

 chief competition will come from 

 the Puget Sound, especially for our 

 staple product, the Douglas fir. In 

 Europe such countries as Norway 

 and Sweden will be strong competi- 

 tors in some lines, but in the bulk 

 of our staple lines their competition 

 will not be serious. Russia is as 

 yet an unknown factor in the export 



trade. Aly trip has showed me 

 that everywhere under the flag the 

 people are anxious to buy British 

 products, and if a reputable firm 

 comes along with a product which 

 appears to be equal to what they 

 have been getting the}^ will give 

 that firm the preference over an 

 alien concern.' 



Benefit of Brush Disposal. 

 (From R. H. Campbell's Address be- 

 fore B. C. Forest Club.) 



"British Columbia has done some 

 brush disposal, as has also the Do- 

 minion. The value of such work 

 in protection is very great. Slashes 

 left from timber operations in many 

 cases make protection an impossibil- 

 ity. We have tried to enforce 

 brush disposal in spruce and jack 

 pine, and in all operations under our 

 control the clearing up is now done 

 fairly well. While there was and 

 is objection by the operators to the 

 disposal of brush, they are learning 

 in the doing of it that it is economi- 

 cally possible and is a great safe- 

 guard, and the opposition is growing 

 less. In regard to reproduction 

 the method for securing it has not 

 been thoroughly studied, and in our 

 anxiety to get rid of brush we mav 

 at times have interfered with repro- 

 duction, but at present we think it 

 better to err on the side of safety 

 against fire. 



Another branch of our work is 

 forest investigations. Mr. Miller 

 spoke to you about that work in the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch, and we 

 hope to give that division more at- 

 tention so as to establish a scientific 

 basis to work on. Most of the in- 

 vestigations at first will, of course, 

 be on Dominion lands. In those 

 provinces where there are organized 

 forest branches they will doubtless 

 handle this work themselves, but 

 we will be equipped to co-operate 

 with them and help them in their 

 work. Then again, we will have to 

 attend to the work in those provinces 

 where there is no forest service." 



