4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grows more quickly in its native home than it does in the British 

 Isles ; in fact, I have seen better growth in young trees both in England 

 and Scotland than I have found in Western Canada. Comparatively 

 little Douglas Fir timber finds its way to European markets, the 

 voyage round Cape Horn being the chief deterrent. But with the 

 opening of the Panama Canal, Europe may reasonably expect to 

 receive largely enhanced supplies. At the present time the bulk of 

 this timber is exported to China, Japan, Australia, and the Cape. 

 By universal consent the Douglas Fir is regarded as the most valuable 

 of all the additions that have been made to the number of exotic 

 trees growing in Britain. It is practically free from disease, is easily 

 satisfied as regards the situation, provided the soil does not contain too 

 much lime and the situation is not too much exposed to gales, and it 

 furnishes a product almost as durable as Larch and in much larger 

 volume for a given area, an annual growth of 200 cubic feet being 

 quite common for this species, as compared with about one-fourth 

 for the other important Conifers. 



South of the Canadian boundary with the United States one 

 encounters such well-known trees as W ellingtonia gigantea, Sequoia 

 sempervirens, Abies nobilis, Pinus Lambertiana, Pinus ponderosa, and 

 several other species more or less well known in parks and pleasure 

 grounds in this country. The American Western Larch [Larix 

 occidenfalis) spreads to some extent north of the international frontier, 

 but its distribution is for the most part in the north-western United 

 States, where it produces stems up to 250 feet high, and furnishes 

 very valuable timber, which, however, is rather inaccessible as regards 

 situation. Some expectation was recently excited in this country 

 that Western Larch might prove a valuable addition to our list of 

 timber trees, and although it is possible that under certain circum- 

 stances it may be proving satisfactory, others are known where the 

 results are not favourable. 



No one can travel through Canada and the Northern United States 

 without being impressed with the enormous destruction that has 

 resulted to forests through fire. Estimates have been made of the 

 annual destruction, but the figures furnished can be little better than 

 a rough estimate. However, the fact is patent to anyone that the 

 first duty of the Canadian and United States Governments is to control 

 forest fires, and this is now being very seriously taken in hand by 

 means of regulations concerning the lighting of fires by tourists and 

 others, and particularly in regard to disposing of the brushwood that 

 is left by the lumbermen, which is a frequent cause of the origin of 

 a conflagration. 



While the north-west of America is most impressive for its wealth 

 of Conifers, one has to go to the south-east of the United States in 

 order to realize what the North American continent can produce in 

 the way of hardwood timber. Tlie two mountain ranges of tlie 

 Alleghanies and Appalachians that run roughly parallel with the 

 Atlantic seaboard, were at one time largely covered with hardwood 



