EEVIEWS — CANADA AT THE UNIVERSAL EXHIBITION. 37 



at least as proprietors of the finest field for production, in the whole 

 world." The hints derived from an inspection of the raw material 

 used by cabinet makers and carpenters among European nations, 

 suggest very extensive alterations in the mode of getting out timber 

 in our Canadian Forests, which deserve special rotice. 



"In lumbering, as the making of timber is termed in Canada, just that amount 

 of intelligence is brought into action, which is required for the squaring of the 

 logs, and the sawing of them into the planks of commerce. None of that skill of 

 woodcraft is exercised which turns to the best and most profitable account the 

 various species, by attending to their several degrees of adaptation to the mecha- 

 nic arts, and to the preparation to be expended on them to make them fit for 

 market. As before observed, two things only are known, square timber and the 

 plank three inches thick. A more recondite study of the application of timber to 

 the mechanic arts, would instruct us in the fact, that there are conditions of length, 

 girth, and diameter required in those arts, by the influence of which the square 

 log of 50 feet long by 20 inches square, and plank of 12 feet by 10 inches, lose 

 their intrinsic value as compared with that higher value which is derivable from 

 compliance with those conditions. How many are the trees left to rot in the 

 forest because they are not reducible to a saw log of the standard measure, or a 

 square stick of the required dimensions : which, trimmed to another form, would 

 in other markets bear a greater value, though diminished in volume. 



Of more than sixty principal species of timber which we possess, we make pro- 

 fitable use of scarcely ten, the rest are left to absolute decay. In Europe the 

 birds'-eye maple is considered as equal to the most precious of the woods used in 

 cabinet-work. It is indeed hardly attainable, and when found, it bears a higher 

 price than mahogany. From this cause arises the dearness of all the articles 

 made of maple in Parisian cabinet-work, the finest in the world." 



Our agricultural productions when compared with those of other 

 countries placed us on a level with the foremost : " our grain won the 

 admiration of all who saw it." The absence of Hemp, Flax and To- 

 bacco, however, was particularly noticed in the Canadian section, and 

 our climate and soil were thought to furnish very favourable condi- 

 tions for the cultivation of those valuable articles. It is not perhaps 

 generally known by those who expressed surprise at the absence of 

 Tobacco, that the late spring frosts to which our climate is subject, 

 render the growth of Tobacco an expensive and very hazardous exper ■ 

 iment. Where labour is very dear and sowing time very transient, 

 it becomes a mere matter of calculation how far the growth of Tobac- 

 co may be made remunerative. It has often succeeded admirably in 

 the western peninsula, but the occurrence of late frosts has not 

 unfrequently destroyed the crops over wide areas and discouraged the 

 cultivation of this important narcotic. Hemp and Flax give better 

 promise of remunerative returns, and will no doubt soon form an im- 

 portant article of Canadian production. 



