194 FORESTKY IN CANADA. 



If these data are anywhere near the actual facts, the results 

 would be : — 



A net annual increment of about 500,000,000 cubic feet. 

 An annual utilization of . . 1,107,000,000 ,, 



An annual deficit of about . 607,000,000 „ 

 This deficit occurs on 932,416 square miles of forests, leading 

 gradually to bankruptcy, unless decided steps are taken to reduce 

 the enormous losses by fire and other causes, in fact, the introduc- 

 tion of a more economical management in the future. Above all, 

 fire protection must be made more successful than it has been in 

 the past. It is, considering the extensive area of the forests, a 

 herculean task which the people and Government of Canada have 

 energetically taken in hand. Still, according to all accounts, the 

 damage is as yet very great. These fires not only prevent a 

 sufiicient regeneration of the forests, but they also destroy large 

 masses of old timber. The local authorities have estimated that 

 the forests contain a total of 62,500 billion cubic feet of mer- 

 chantable saw timber, and 81,000 billion cubic feet of pulpwood ; 

 that the former would last for about 70 years, and the pulpwood 

 for 400 years. Not very many years ago it was estimated that 

 fires alone destroyed some 10 times the quantity of timber 

 utilized, and though fire protection has made good progress of 

 late years, there seems to be no doubt that fires still destroy 

 several times the quantity of utilized timber. Under these 

 circumstances it is very doubtful whether the existing stocks of 

 timber will meet the demands for anything hke the number of 

 years at present estimated. The demand for pulpwood has, and 

 still is, rapidly increasing, and diligent research is going on to find 

 a substitute for it. 



All these considerations indicate the necessity of a change in 

 the system of management, namely, the concentration of the 

 energies of the Forest Department on the more valuable and more 

 favourably situated parts of the forests. Steps should be taken 

 at the earliest possible date to select a sufiicient area for the 

 establishment of " Permanent State Forests," to demarcate them, 

 place them under special protection, and manage them for a 

 permanently sustained yield. The longer this measure is delayed, 

 the greater will be the difficulties. If taken in hand now there 



