FOREST PLANTING IN CANADA 119 



For Douglas fir, clean-cutting and slash-burning to expose the mineral 

 soil, which is the most favourable seed bed, is desirable. 



As to proper utilization, while it is true there is now great waste, 

 this is largely a question of market and will automatically adjust itself 

 before long, just as it has done in the older parts of the country. In 

 addition the Forest Branch is making every provision possible under 

 existing conditions to obtain closer utilization. But, in a province 

 which is cutting as yet only one-fifth of the annual growth of its forests 

 it is not to be expected that as much finesse can be practised in methods 

 of harvesting the crop, as in those countries which cut or use more 

 than the annual growth. 



As to slash disposal it is no exa geration to say that British Colum- 

 bia is just now in advance of the other provinces of Canada. Where 

 others have been investigating and discussing, here they have simply 

 gone ahead and burned the slash. So far, brush piling is compulsory 

 only in connection with railway construction, but active steps are being 

 taken to obtain the co-operation of all the loggers with the view of 

 making the practice eventually universal. 



It may be ventured then, that, in most of the forest areas of 

 British Columbia which have been so far the objects of observation, 

 artificial regeneration will never be more than supplementary and ac- 

 cessory to natural reproduction. Only in the southern interior of the 

 Province, which is climatically and physically the northern extension 

 of the inter-movmtain dry belt of the United States, is artificial 

 regeneration ever likely to play the leading role. 



The feasibility of reproducing forests by planting or sowing has 

 been so effectually demonstrated in other parts of the world, that it is 

 unnecessary to dilate on it. There is no doubt that such plantations 

 will thrive in British Columbia, at least wherever the natural forest 

 has grown, and as far as native species are concerned. But is it possible 

 to introduce exotic species ? Market conditions permitting, woiild it be 

 possible to grow hardwoods in British Columbia ? 



Possibility of Growing Exotic Hwrdwoods in British Columbia. — 

 British Columbia must import the bulk of her hardwoods. A lack 

 of something desirable is not always a cause for congratiolation, but 

 it is in this case because here there is something better ; nature has 

 supplied British Columbia with conifers or softwoods instead of hard- 

 woods. A glance at lumber statistics tells the story of their respective 

 importance in the rfiarket. In Canada, in 1911, about 94 per cent, 

 and in the United States, about. 78 per cent of the total lumber cuts were 

 supplied by conifers, the balance being supplied by hardwoods. The 



