ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING. 



5 



more useful kinds of timber. It is the supplies 

 brought from this quarter that are the chief cause 

 of the low rate at which wood has sold during late 

 years. Were these supplies dried up, the price of 

 the article would rise to a degree that would be se- 

 verely felt, in every department in which it is used. 

 And, though the forests of America are of vast ex- 

 tent, the parts of them which are available to us, 

 are confined within limits comparatively narrow, 

 and will soon be exhausted. It is only when wood 

 is situated in the neighbourhood of navigable rivers, 

 or near the sea- coast, that the inhabitants of Ca- 

 nada can derive any advantage from cutting it down 

 for exportation. In a country where there are no 

 roads, and where wages are high, wood cannot be 

 brought from any considerable distance inland, but 

 at an enormous expense. The carriage of a log 

 thirty or forty miles overland, in such circumstances, 

 would thrice exceed in cost its voyage of three thou- 

 sand miles across the Atlantic ; and the price of 

 wood in this country would require to be more than 

 double what it is at present, to leave any profit at 

 all to the exporter. Now, the banks of the navi- 

 gable rivers are the very situations, where colonists, 

 for obvious reasons, prefer to settle ; and, as the po- 

 pulation increases, the woods must, by some means 



