364 Canada. 



Quebec and Ontario the income amounted to between 

 $200,000 and $300,000. 



But even then the immediate revenue and not any 

 concern for its continuation animated the administra- 

 tion of the public or crown forests. New rules were 

 designed to secure larger returns by introducing com- 

 petitive bids, a bonus being paid for the limits, (i. e. a 

 limited territory on which the holder or licensee had 

 the exclusive right to cut), in addition to the dues for 

 the timber actually cut. Later, to prevent the hold- 

 ing of timber limits for a rise of prices an annual cut 

 of first 1,000, then 500 feet per square mile of holdings 

 was required. To still further accelerate the use of the 

 licenses to cut, the Crown Timber Act of 1849 limited 

 the license to one year, and provided for an eventual 

 limit in size of the grants. All these provisions forced 

 to more rapid cutting and overproduction, and de- 

 pression in the timber market was the result, the supply 

 in 1847 being 44 million feet to meet an export of 

 19 million. 



New rules were promulgated in 1851, introducing a 

 ground rent system, a set price being paid per square 

 mile of limit, and doubling the ground rent for unused 

 limits each year. Needless to say, the impractica- 

 bility of this geometric progression in ground rents 

 became visible in a few years. 



The final present systems in the disposal of timber 

 limits were gradually perfected in varying manner by 

 the several provincial governments, but they agree in 

 general principles, in that they grant limits for a cer- 

 tain time, usually 21 years, during which certain con- 

 ditions as to establishment of mills and amount of 



