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TRANSACTIONS OF SUB-SECTION K. 705 
thus given to agriculture has led to greatly improved conditions. The 
benefits thus conferred on farmers have led to a demand for an increase in the 
number of these institutions, which have been gradually increased to nine 
with four smaller experimental stations. 
The main features in the work carried on at the Central Experimental 
Farm at Ottawa, covering all branches of work relating to agriculture, were 
referred to, also the locations of all the Experimental Farms and stations 
established to the present time and the lines of work which they have con- 
ducted, and those which, from their climatic and other conditions, they are 
specially fitted to conduct in the future. 
Reference was also made to the helpful encouragement which the 
Dominion Experimental Farms have afforded to Canadian agriculture. 
6. Lhe Fruit Industry of British Columbia. By J.C. Mercaure. 
MONDAY, AUGUST 30. 
Joint Discussion with Sections B and K on Wheat. 
See Appendix A, 
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. The Outlook for Timber Supplies. 
By Professor W. SomErviuue, D.Sc. 
Much attention has recently been given to this subject, and the general 
opinion is that prospects are not reassuring. Britain paid twenty-seven 
millions sterling for wood on the average of the five years 1904-8, as com- 
pared with eighteen millions 1889-93, an increase of 50 per cent. Even 
Germany, with nearly twelve times the area of forest that we possess, pays 
annually some twelve millions sterling for imported timber. Although 
the U.S.A. exports wood and wood-products to the value of twenty millions 
sterling per annum, she has to pay as much for imports. In Europe, Sweden 
and Russia are the chief timber-exporting countries, and it seems unlikely 
that these countries can maintain supplies. Sweden, it is officially stated, 
is over-cutting her forests to the extent of more than 100 million cubic feet 
yearly, while Russia is already reducing her exports. In various official 
publications the Department of Agriculture of the United States has 
drawn attention to the prodigal method in which her forests are exploited, 
and has pointed out that in a few years she will not even have timber 
enough for her own supplies. 
There are only two regions of the world that may contain sufficient areas 
of virgin coniferous forest appreciably to affect the situation. The one is 
Canada, which in the North-West, and also North and East of 
Lake Superior, contains large tracts of untouched forest. The growing 
stock of large stretches of country west of the Rocky Mountains is un- 
doubtedly large, and is now having an appreciable effect on market supplies. 
The timber that may become available along the line of the new 
Grand Trunk Railway is much more problematical. The area is vast, but 
the density of the stock is said to be poor, and the individual trees and 
rate of growth are small. The other region of the world that contains large 
1909 ZZ 
