History of the Forest 295 



up a new and ever growing market to consume the lumber 

 supply at home. Up to the time when the expansion on to 

 the prairies took place, and that movement was compara- 

 tively late in coming, the growth in population had been 

 rather slow, and the effects of the heavy logging along the 

 Atlantic coast had not been severely felt. 



These conditions have served as a disadvantage to 

 Canada, but her close relations with England have been 

 distinctly to her advantage. England had, even before 

 the settlement of Canada, long been dependent on out- 

 side sources for her timber supply. Her naval supremacy 

 in those days of wooden ships made her especially anxious 

 to conserve anything which might serve as ship timbers. 

 The French had ordered reservations of such timber as 

 early as 1683, and when the British occupied the country 

 they enlarged the reservations. In 1763 and 1775 reserva- 

 tions were ordered in every township. These orders were 

 not very strictly enforced on account of the belief of the 

 ' ' inexhaustible supply. ' ' 



It was not until 1879 that the home government adopted 

 the policy of reserving to the crown all the timberland 

 not already granted. But vast tracts of timber had al- 

 ready passed into the hands of private individuals. Under 

 the French, all of the land had originally belonged to the 

 king, who granted them to others under feudal tenure. 

 A trading company controlled the whole country in this 

 way up to 1663, when the failure of the company termi- 

 nated the relationship. This was followed by the prac- 

 tice of granting to individuals, through court favor, large 

 tracts of land as gifts, on condition that they should be 

 regranted to colonists. The result of this was to make the 



