SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK. 201 



present stock would be sufficient for 100 years, and if reproduction 

 were to replace the annual cuttings, the present system of working 

 might go on for ever. The " if " is, however, a powerful one. 

 In the first place, Mr. Vincent Jones stated distinctly in his report 

 that the black spruce, the most important pulpwood tree, grows 

 comparatively slowly. In the second place, fire has, in the past, 

 destroyed several times as much as has been taken out by cutting, 

 and, unless fire protection is more effective than it has been up-to- 

 date, the existing stock may come to an end very much sooner 

 than in 100 years. In the third place, the demand may, and is 

 most likely to, increase as time goes on. If it were to double and 

 fires to go on, the out-turn could be kept up for a moderate 

 number of years only. The requirements of the United States 

 are constantly increasing, and it is more than doubtful whether 

 the States around the Baltic will be able to supply the United 

 Kingdom with 6 million loads of timber annually, as they did 

 before the war. 



Most undoubtedly the Government of Newfoundland should 

 bestir itself without loss of time. It cannot, it is feared, cancel 

 now the hcences by which it alienated the forests for a period of 

 S9 years, but' it should do what is now possible in the following 

 directions : — 



(1) To watch and control the work in the forests, and to resume 



aU areas the holders of which fail to comply with the 

 conditions laid down in the licences. 



(2) To organise a really efficient system of fire protection. 



(3) To assist the natural regeneration of all areas which are 



still in a condition to answer suitable silvicultural 

 measures, and to replant or sow up all areas which are 

 below that condition. 



(4) To secure without delay the services of an efficient Forestry 



Expert as head of the Forest Department with an 

 adequate staff to carry out the forest policy of the 

 Dominion in the above and other directions, such as a 

 survey of the resources of the forests, the rate of growth, 

 the local consumption, and the early preparation of a 

 balance sheet of increment, utilization, exports, imports 

 and consumption. 

 Ihe execution of such a programme will, no doubt, cost money, 



