-H ■ "'^:

LETTER

TO THE

PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL

OF THE

MONTREAL BOARD OF TRADE

OBJECTING

" To Get Rid of the Timber."

PRESENTED BY

WILLIAM LITTLE

AT THE MEETING HELD ON

JUNE lO, 1 8 9 O

PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL & SON.

J890.

^pr-..-.-

LETTER

TO THE

PRESIDENT AND COUNCIL

MONTREAL BOARD OF TRADE

OBJECTING

"To Get Rid of the Timber."

PRESENTED BY

WILLIAM LITTLE,

AT THE MEETING HELD ON

JUNE lO, 1890

Puttttenl :

PRINTED BY JOHN LOVELL & SON.

1890.

Frora the American Forestry Association

(Formerly American Forestry Congress)

I have obtained the following

ESTIMATES OP FORESTRY INTERESTS

OF THE

riVITED STATES:

Acres covered with wood growth, or 26 per cent, of total

land area 450,000,000

Acres cut over annually 25,000,000

Wood consumed annually :

Timber and lumber, cubic feet.... 4,800,000,000

Eailroads " .... 500,000,000

Mining timber " .... 150,000,000

Fences '' .... 500,000,000

Export " .... 150,000,000

Fuel " .... 18,000,000,000

Total cubic feet 24,000,000,000

Value of wood consumed annually $1,000,000,000

Timber lands belonging to U. S. Government acres 70,000,000

Value of timber reported stolen from public lands during

seven years $36,719,935

Amount recovered during same period $478,073

Saw-mill capacity of the U. S , ft. B. M 60,000,000,000

Forest administration of United States Government NONE

To which may be added
FOREST POLICY of the United States and CANADA
'*TO GET RID OP THE TIMBER."

To the President and Council

of the Board of Trade,

Montreal,

Gentlemen :

I desire to call your attention to a subject —
The Timber Question — which I believe to be of the greatest
moment, as affecting every interest in the country, and I am
sure all thoughtful persons must view with alarm the decreas-
ing area of our valuable pine and spruce forest lands, the
decline in quality of the timber itself, and the indifference
with which these facts appear to be considered both by the
Government and the general public. With your permis-
sion, I will endeavor to point out how disastrous it would be
'* To Get Rid of the Timber!''

I have the honor to be.
Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

WILLIAM LITTLE.

Montreal, June lo, 1890.

"TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER."

" To Get Rid of the Timber " was the answer sent from the State of
Arkansas, two years ago, to the Michigan State Forestry Commission when
inquiring about that State's policy respecting its timber !

Yet, strange as it may appear to many, this is the exact answer that
would have to be given to-day^ if properly replied to by either the Govern-
ment of the United States or Canada, as whatever policy they have had
(whether of one political party or the other) has hitherto been simply
" to get rid of the timber." The United States parted with its land, having
tens of thousands of feet of the finest timber per acre, on exactly the same
terms as that having no timber whatever. While Canada sold its land and
timber in like manner, and granted timber limits in areas of 50 square
miles each and to the extent of thousands of miles at a time, at merely
nominal rates^ to such of its constituents as might desire this concession,
till, at the present moment, it has little of any immediate value left. This
being the manner of disposal of such property by the Government, one
can readily conceive why it is difficult to create any interest whatever in the
preservation of timber property. Moreover, when we consider that only a
few years ago the great obstacle to contend against was the size and quan-
tity of timber necessary to be removed, in order to locate a home in the
wilderness of trees and to make way for the plough and the reaper, it is not
to be wondered that this should be the case ; but, now that the railways
have spanned the Continent and demonstrated the fact that the country is,
on the whole, a prairie, and treeless one, rather than a wooded one — that the
timber is peculiar to the coasts, lakes and water courses, while the vast
interior is bare of timber — coupled with the further knowledge that this
originally vast wooded area, extending from Maine to the Mississippi, can
now show "but a few scattered remnants" of its once great wealth of
timber, one would naturally expect more intelligent consideration of
this important question.

Not so, however; in both countries *' to get rid of the timber" is
still the first order of the day, and the same policy, or rather want of
policy, as regards timber exists — each, in its own way, being equally
negligent or indifferent, and equally willing to get rid of the timber.
Some slight interest is taken in the subject of forestry — the most mo-
mentous question possible as affecting the future welfare of the country —
by a few thoughtful persons ; but how Httle effect it has yet had on
the consciousness of the general public, or of even our legislatures,
is shown, when, in the arrangement of a tariff by the Government
of the United States, the direct aim of which is to reduce the revenue

6 "TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER

(which is found to be out of all reason in excess of national wants), the
duty on timber is not only not removed, but is so hocus-pocussed as to
actually increase this duty, as if timber were some noxious thing to be kept
out of the country by legislative enactment ; when the slightest consider-
ation of the subject would show that a policy of giving a bounty for the
import of timber, to any country willing to part with it, would be a far
more common-sense one than its restriction by the imposition of duties of
any nature whatever, unless wanting " to get rid of the timber ; " while the
Canadian Government, on its side, also shows how little realization it has
of the existing conditions, by actually consenting to remove the slight pro-
tective duty of $2 per thousand on pine and $i per thousand on spruce
sawlogs, if the United States Government will reduce the import duty on
lumber to $i per thousand feet — thus exhibiting its too great anxiety to
''get rid of the timber" — when a reasonable knowledge of the circum-
stances would demonstrate that, if an export duty were ever permissible,
this is one that has every valid reason for existing, as a measure of
self-protection, which should extend not only to sawlogs, but to the manu-
factured lumber as well. But, yet, the Governments are not wholly to
blame in this matter. We are now living under Responsible Governments,
which are expected to administer the affairs of the country in accordance
with the well understood wishes of the people, and, if the people are
apathetic, or careless and indifferent, we can hardly expect members of the
House of Representatives at Washington, or the Commons House of Parlia-
ment at Ottawa, to make any serious effort in the direction of forest
conservation, when they can tell us that they have difficulties enough on
their hands to contend with issues about which we are all in earnest, with-
out troubling themselves with questions to which we ourselves seem to give
no concern.

But, if we might not hope for a consideration of a subject of such vital
importance, from the representative houses of either country, we should look
with confidence to the gentlemen of the Senate — who, not being so direct-
ly responsible to the people, are thus relieved from the cares and anxieties
necessarily connected with representative bodies — for the careful considera-
tion of just such subjects ; and one would naturally think, if there ever
were a satisfactory reason for the existence of such chambers, it was
especially for the discussion of subjects like that now under consideration,
and that the question of forestry would be peculiarly suited to and direct-
ly within the province of the statesmen of this chamber. But here, too,
the same unconcern and indifference appears to exist, and the same will-
ingness '* to get rid of the timber."

It is not because this question — the most momentous in its importance
that can possibly be conceived as affecting every interest in this country —
has not been brought prominently to their notice or that of the public.
For years past, my father, and, more recently, myself, have persistently

"TO GET EID OF THE TIMBER. /

directed public attention to this subject as one of the gravest character.
Memorials have been addressed to the United States Congress and the
Canadian Parliament. The question has been fully and ably discussed by
intelligent men of both countries; and, notwithstanding the imminently
serious condition of the situation is fully confirmed, whenever any in-
vestigation has been made ; yet the Governments of both countries I was
going to say "do nothing." No — worse than that — each does its best "to
get rid of the timber" — that of the United States by imposing a restrictive
duty on lumber, and that of Canada by lowering the export duty on logs.

The alarming condition is now painfully apparent to the most casual
observer, who will contrast the character of the timber manufactured at
the present time, running largely into the different grades of culls, with
the magnificent black walnut, black cherry, butternut, chestnut, hickory,
buttonwood, whitewood. black and white ash, red and white oak, red and
white pine, which, when not used for fencing or fuel, were burnt up in the
log heaps of Ontario in Canada, and in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin in the United States, only a few years
ago, and which, when manufactured, the product thereof, ran largely into
the grades of selects and clear lumber; and, while this matter is hardly
given a thought by any one, we are almost face to face with a problem
that must be quickly solved, or disastrous results will surely and speedily
follow.

New lines of railway are being built, or extended, into districts, depen-
dent almost entirely on the timber trade for business — the carrying capacity
of the Lake marine is being increased at an enormous rate — cities, towns,
and villages, depending largely on the lumber industry, are enlarging their
borders, as if the supply were inexhaustible. But timber cannot be grown
like a crop of corn — its growth is a matter, not of years, but of ages, and
when once gone, cannot be restored during the lifetime of those now living,
while the really good timber of the north Atlantic and Lake region is not
only not inexhaustible, as many suppose, but actually about exhausted.

Beginning at the north Atlantic seaboard, the lumbermen started in to
procure that most valuable of all timber, the incomparable white pine ;
and, after exhausting the original forests of the New England States and
coast region, extended their operations through northern New York, Pennsyl-
vania, and Canada, till they finally settled in that paradise of the lumberman,
the States of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and here their crusade
terminates, for they have now reached the confines ; and one can realize
with what relentless energy they have pursued their victim, when we con-
sider that the amount of this timber converted into lumber the past season,
from this section alone, reached the enormous aggregate of 8,305,833,277
superficial feet (according to the admirable compiled statement of the
Northwestern Lumberman) — an amount equal to two-thirds of the entire
cut of all descriptions of timber in every State in the Union but twenty

8 "TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER."

years ago (the census of 1870 returning the whole lumber product of all
kinds in every State at 12,755^543,000 feet), while the cut of shingles last
year, in the same region, was 4,698,975,800 pieces, made almost exclusively
from white pine, which^ if added to that sawn into lumber, would make the
total consumption of this timber from that section alone fully 9,000,000,000
feet.

But this frightful slaughter of the forests has about reached its end. The
29,000,000,000 feet reported as standing in lower Michigan ten years ago, by
the census of 1880, had dwindled to but 3,000,000,000 or one-tenth that
amount last year, as was ascertained after investigation by the editor of the
Chicago Timberman ; and if we deduct from the total of 84,170,000,000 feet,
estimated by the census of 1880 as then standing in these three States,
that cut during the past ten years, which amounted to 74,463,054,858 feet,
it would leave only 9,706,945,142 feet remaining, or but one year's stock on
hand, an amount that would have been about consumed in making the
41,303,373,085 shingles turned out during that time, so that had the lumber-
men confined their operations to the same character of timber as was
estimated for the census, there would not be a merchantable white pine
tree standing in that whole territory to-day !

But the necessities of the lumbermen compelled the cutting of inferior
white pine, red pine, hemlock, basswood, white and black ash, and such other
floatable timbers as could be obtained by water, as well as hard woods and
pine inaccessible to convenient drivable streams, which are now brought
to the Jmills by rail, or sawn into lumber by mills erected in the vicini4;y
of the timber, so that their operations on a reduced scale may be con-
tinued for a short time ; but the end is almost at hand. Even to-day, for
every mill owner who has five years stock remaining^ there are ten who
have not one ; and their mills are being dismantled — burnt-over stump
lands are being again cut over — all floatable timber of every kind is being
taken to the mills to be converted into lumber, and they are now making
onslaughts on our Canadian pine to keep their, otherwise useless, saw mills
in operation. Now, while this has been the result of the operations of the
lumbermen in the Northwest, it must not be presumed that those they left
behind in the older sections neglected to employ their energies in using up
the remaining forests of spruce and hardwoods, for they, too, have been
equally successful in their efforts '' to get rid of the timber."

The comparatively small amount of uncut spruce ten years ago in Maine,
New Hampshire, and Vermont, returned at 7,265,000,000 feet, with an
annual cut of 653,281,000 feet, equal in ten years to 6,532,810,000 feet,
would appear to leave but 732,190,000 feet on hand, or a little over one
year's supply; and the spruce in the Adirondack region of New York, esti-
mated ten years ago at 5,000,000,000, with a limited amount in the mountairr
districts of Pennsylvania, has now been pretty well harvested. So that in
this whole vast territory it is now really hard to find any considerable area

"TO GET EID OF THE TIMBER. ^

of country from which the good merchantable white pine and spruce timber
have not been removed !

1 trust I may be pardoned if, in what is hereafter stated, there may ap-
pear what has elsewhere been mentioned by me ; but my object will have
been attained if, by any means, any interest whatever may be aroused
in this — the most momentous question we may ever be called upon to con-
sider ; for, as was truly said m a leader in the N. Y. Sun, when urging
the United States Congress during the Session of 1882-3 to remove
duties from Canadian lumber : "No more vital question can come before
Congress. Perhaps no Congress has ever been called upon to decide an
economic question of greater moment." This sentiment was fully endorsed
by nearly the whole metropolitan press, the Thnes, Herald, World, Post,
Nation, Advertiser, Bulletin, Star, Witness, Record, even to Fuck, ex-
pressed almost similar views. So strong indeed was the sentiment on
this question, that when brought to the attention of the Senate, notwith-
standing the recommendation to the contrary by the tariff commission, it
almost unanimously agreed to put all forest products on the free list. No
sooner, however, was this known than there was a general stampede of
American lumbermen to Washington, who urged the late general, then
Senator Logan (a gentleman respected by all parties, but whose knowledge
of this question about equalled that of another distinguished general's know
ledge of the tariff, which he is said to have remarked, " was but a local issue
anyway,") to have these duties restored. Thus by using the personal
popularity of General Logan, by misrepresenting the existing condition,
and the use of the means which their enormous wealth enabled them
to employ, they succeeded in their purely selfish and unpatriotic efforts in
getting these pernicious duties restored to the tariff bill then under con-
sideration ; and they are now again at work trying to manipulate the
present bill, as they have done every preceding one, as if these petty
duties were a matter of any moment to them or anybody else, except in
their evil effects, in preventing, so long as they exist, any honest expression
to be given by the great lumber journals of the true conditions of the
forests of the country, lest a knowledge thereof should arouse a demand
on the part of the public for their removal ; and they care not what disaster
may befall the country, so long as they can keep on these duties and " get
more timber and cut more logs."

When considering this question, I take great pleasure in saying that I
never had anything but the most courteous treatment from the gentlemen
of the press ; whenever I have approached them they have always been
ready to give me their attention to the discussion, and their space to the
exposition of this important subject ; but as newspapers are not usually
run successfully on pure philanthropy, and as the public seems to prefer
knowing who made the best score at the last ball match, or such other
important matter as the style of Miss Spangle's new bonnet — the press

10 "TO GET KID OF THE TIMBER."

must supply such news in preference, and the timber supply having been
heretofore considered a matter for posterity, *' posterity having done nothing
for us," why should we trouble ourselves for posterity? Now, however, that
the issue is immediate, let us hope for its consideration by the public, the
press, and the Government.

The New York Nation thus referred to this matter in January, 1883 : —

*' The country is not without words of warning in regard to the dangers which threaten
the forests ; they have been spoken far and wide. In the meantime we continue to take
$2 from the pocket of every man using a thousand feet of pine or spruce lumber, and hand
it over to the manufacturers as a bounty to induce them to destroy the forests more rapidly.
It is natural, then, that the manufacturers resist any attempt to have this duty removed.
They will make a still more determined fight to prevent it. They are bold, rich, and
united. They are actuated by a single purpose — to convert the greatest amount of forest
into the largest amount of money, in the shortest possible time. Their organization is
perfect. They control Legislatures, and elect members of Congress; they own Governors
and Senators. They know what they want and they mean to have it at any cost, and
without regard to the future prosperity of the country. We repeat, the tariff duty on
lumber is a premium on the devastation of the country, and should be repealed without
delay."

If we take in the whole extent of country from Maine to Minnesota, sep-
arated only from Canada in some parts by an imaginary line, and in others
by a few miles of intervening water, we will find that the U. S. imports
from Canada hardly ever exceed 600,000,000 feet a year, and which is
more likely for the future to fall off than otherwise, an amount but 3 per
cent, of the yearly consumption of lumber in this section alone, and
but 2 per cent, of the whole amount annually cut in the United States,
we can readily see what little influence it can have, except as above
indicated. The fact is that the Canadian supply has of late years been
hardly a factor worth considering. Any ill effects the American lumberman
has ever experienced have been more from his own excessive greed and his
insatiable desire to overstock the market in advance of the reasonable
demands of trade, than anything that might, could, would or should be
done, by the Canadian lumbermen. That section of the country above
referred to produced, in the census year 1880, 12,817,625,000 feet of lum-
ber, being, as it appears, in excess of the whole product of the country
10 years previously, which was in 1870 12,755,543,000 feet, and con-
sidering the increase since then, 50 per cent, or slightly above one-half
the increase that has taken place in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minne-
sota, which ran up from 4,806,943,000 feet in 1879 ^^ 8,303,833,277 feet
in 1889, with a similar increase in the output of shingles from 2,859,112,-
160 to 4,698,975,800 pieces, we have 19,462,437,500 feet as the product
in sawn lumber alone at the present time, which, including the 600,000,000
from Canada, makes a total of 20,026,437,500 feet, so that the Canadian
proportion, as is said above, reaches only 3 per cent, of this amount, or
but 2 per cent, of that of the whole country, which must now be fully
30,000,000,000 feet of sawn lumber.

11

Professor Charles S. Sargent, special agent of the United States Census,
1880, in his admirable and comprehensive Report of the Forests of the
United States, placed the value of the lumber, fuel, and other forest pro-
ducts, of which he was able to get fairly accurate returns, at $490,073,094,
and concluded that, if the complete returns had been obtained, it would
be found to exceed $700,000,000, so that we may safely consider these
products at the present time to amount to more than $1,000,000,000 in
value, at primary points of production — a sum that equals the whole
United States crops of wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, cotton and
tobacco, and one-third greater than the whole United States exports of
all kinds, including coin, the past year !

Now, the question that should have engaged the attention of the
American lumbermen was, how they might have prolonged the existing
supply of timber in their own immediate neighborhood for some
considerable time ; but the question that has occupied their mind was,
how to keep out of the country the 2 per cent, coming from Canada —
this, and the desire to *' get more timber and cut more logs," like that of
another gentleman, often mentioned, whose whole aim in life was to "get
more land and raise more hogs," may be said to have engrossed their
whole attention, for while it may be admitted that they are not averse to
make money as an incident in the operation, their whole am.bition in life
appears to be to " get more timber and cut more logs "; and instead of con-
cerning themselves in the least as to what came after them, as is ascribed to
them by the majority of the House Committee of Ways and Means of the
present Congress in such imaginary sentimental rot as " taking proper care
of his timber lands, now so generally preserved by the judicious cutting of
the trees of full growth, at such intervals of time as will preserve the tim-
ber reserves," he is still slashing away as if his life depended on his ability
*' to get rid of the timber." The correct description of the lumberman's
actual method is thus described by Professor W. J. Beal, Mich. Agl. Col-
lege, on the spot, who says : " Desolation follows the track of the lumber-
man. All of the beauty and most of the value is removed from the land.
Where the timber is removed the forests are deprived of vast quantities
of young trees, that ought to be left to produce more timber for the future.
The lumberman cuts and removes the best, leaving the remainder in con-
dition for the fire to certainly follow and destroy it, and moves on to'
treat one section or township [after another in a similar manner. He is
after money, and is often doing little to improve the country in any
respect."

But to return to the consideration of the present importance of this
question : I have shown above that the whole of this originally heavily
wooded area, extending from Maine to the Mississippi, which requires an
annual supply of 20,000,000,000 feet of sawn lumber for its own immediate
wants, is now about depleted of this great storehouse of wealth which it

12

originally contained, and I have always maintained that the people of
America have never fully realized the enormous value which such a
great wealth of timber provided for their use, actually without purchase
or production, has had in advancing every industry in this country — a
value that can hardly be expressed in figures, but the loss of which will
be seriously felt almost immediately in many sections, hitherto largely
depending for prosperity on an abundant supply of timber. Few truer
words were ever uttered than those of the Glasgow Herald^ when con-
sidering this subject in 1876; it said: "The knowledge we have gained
of a dearth of cotton may help us to appreciate ' the terribleness of the
calamity ' that would be experienced from a dearth of timber in Canada
or the States. In point of fact, Canada and the United States are busy
sawing from under them that far-reaching, fortune-making branch, on
which, like conquerors, they are now sitting and overlooking the world."

The mere money value of this 20,000,000,000 feet as it falls from the saw
must be fully $300,000,000, and if to this we add the large amount of other
forest products, such as firewood, round and hewn timber, railway ties,
poles, posts, shingles, laths, pickets, pulpwood, etc. (the fuel wood alone
amounting to $150,000,000), we may reasonably expect the whole to sum
up more than $500,000,000 (a sum equal to the whole export of cotton,
grain, provisions, animals and tobacco to all countries by the United
States last year). This is the amount annually drawn from these forests, and
would cost fully double this sum, or $1,000,000,000, annually, to obtain
from any other known source, but no other section of the country has
in any great quantity the same valuable timber here referred to, and this
is the property about which they give themselves no concern I

Consider for a moment what effect the loss of this timber would have
on the single matter of transportation alone. Think of the effect a
complete stoppage of timber supplies would have, say, on the city of
Chicago,* which now receives annually about one-tenth of this amount, or
2,000,000,000 feet of sawn lumber. Withdraw from the woods the great
army of men now engaged in cutting and delivering this timber to the saw
mills, and from the towns and villages the employment given in con-
verting it into lumber. Remove from the lakes the traffic in timber and
other forest products, and what a hiatus would appear. Take from the
port of Chicago the fieet of vessels, frequently numbering nearly 100 in a
day, engaged in carrying this timber property, and from the city itself the
tens of thousands employed in handling it and converting it into the
various uses for which it is adapted. Take away from the railways cen.
tering there their proportion of the traffic supplied by this 2,000,000,000
feet of lumber, and the other forest products annually delivered there —
an amount sufficient to give ten different lines of railway five trains a day
of twenty cars each, for every working day in the year — considerable of
this freight going thousands of miles, for, unlike agricultural products,

* See Appendix for Port List.

"TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER." 13

most of which are consumed at home and do not require transportation,
the products of the forest have all to be transported either by land or
water to the markets in which they are to be consumed. Take all these
away and try to contemplate the altered conditions thereby produced,
and the blighting influences on all other industries connected therewith,
and you will have but a partial idea of the desolate conditions that will
shortly arise, unless immediate steps are taken to in some measure prolong
the existence of the remaining timber, for new forests cannot be created
in a year, hardly in a lifetime, and, as the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette
pertinently said: — "As well send out an army of incendiaries and then
try to equalize the moisture with a hand squirt, as trying to counteract
the effect of this bounty in cutting down the forests, by planting trees."

Knowing such facts, one would fancy that every effort would be made to
husband with care what little timber remains; but instead of this, the
reverse is the case — ignorance and indifference still flourish in all their
strength. Only a couple of days ago I received a lumber journal, actually
commending the enterprise of a Michigan lumber concern in ripping up
500,000 feet of pine timber daily, as if the proprietors were fearful lest
they might be left behind in the slaughter of the pine, and caught by their
neighbors with any stock on hand, and thus be unable to participate in the
general collapse. Thus it may be seen^ that if the markets of the United
States are not flooded with excessive supplies, it is not from any lack of
desire on the part of the lumberman, or of the milling capacity either, but
rather from a lack of proper material for successful conversion. And at
almost the same moment we in Canada are advised of the temporary
embarrassment of one of our most worthy great timber firms, owing to the
over-production of pine timber for the immediate wants of the trade. All
this, occurring at a time when the supply of this timber is about exhausted,
leads one to inquire when will the American learn that there is no real
necessity for the immediate extermination of the small remnant of white
pine existing on this continent. One often wonders if the cutting of timber
does not tend to create, like the use of opium, a craving to be satisfied only
by still larger doses, when we see the hundreds, yes, thousands of apparently
intelligent men that have rushed in to destroy the timber, only to find
themselves, in the end, worn out in body and mind, their own money all
gone, while some have even gone so far as to use up the whole capital of
banks in their precipitate haste " to get rid of the timber."

It will no doubt be said : " What of this? there are still vast forests in the
Southern States and the Pacific to be drawn upon." This may be a matter
of great value to the South and West, but to the people of the North, who
annually consume three-fourths of the sawn lumber manufactured, it is a
matter of the most serious consequence.

As has been shown above, the sawn lumber now produced in the North,
amounting to 20,000,000,000 feet, probably exceeds $300,000,000 a year

14 " TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER."

as it falls from the saw, and to replace it would cost double this sum, or
$600,000,000 a year, even if the same lumber could be obtained else-
where ; so that in a very short time this section of the country, instead of
having a great and profitable industry advancing and helping every inte-
rest, will be called upon to pay out hundreds of millions of dollars annually
for such material.

But it might be well to consider whether the South and West have that
great superabundance over their own requirements, that they should be in any
great haste " to get rid of the timber." The impression I formed from visiting
both sections is that they have not, and 1 will here insert some extracts from
a letter written by me when in London in 1883, at the request of the editor
of Forestry^ and the sequel will show whether I rightly appreciated the
situation or not : — " But our Southern friends are even interested with us
in the preservation of this timber, as the uses to which it is applied are so
different from theirs, that large quantities are annually sent South, and
the Government of Canada, recognizing this fact, admits Southern pine duty
free.

" It is further to be hoped that the Southern States may learn a lesson
from the prodigality of the North, and preserve their most valuable timber
for the benefit and welfare of the community, instead of giving it away to
timber-land speculators, or to such an ignorant race of destructionists as
have gobbled up (now devastated) the timber of the North, or they too will
soon be dispossessed of one of the greatest blessings that Providence has
vouchsafed their country.

" When people talk, as they sometimes do, of the inexhaustible forests of
the South, they little know the sawing capacity of the Northern mills, which
could in twelve months' time convert the whole merchantable Pine of the
States of Georgia or Alabama into lumber, and be but six months in using
that of Florida or either of the Carolinas. In fact, the mind can hardly
realize the enormous consumption of timber going on in the United States ;
but some idea may be formed of it from a knowledge of the fact, that the
single city of Chicago received last year over one million St. Petersburg
standard hundreds (about 2,000,000,000 superficial feet) of sawn timber,
principally White Pine, an amount about equivalent to the entire receipts of
sawn wood of all kinds by the United Kingdom during the same period.

" The entire annual consumption of wood for building and manufacturing
purposes can now be but little short of fifty million loads (30,000,000,000
feet). This of itself must show the enormous destruction of forests going on
in the United States, and the serious question a loss of its timber must have
upon its future welfare. It consequently becomes, in my opinion, the greatest
economic question of the day — one before which all others sink into insigni-
ficance in comparison.

" When we consider the importance that an abundance of the most valuable
timber has had on the past welfare of the country, and come to realize what

"TO GET RJD OF THE TIMBER." 15

* a dearth of timber ' means, all will readily see that the foregoing is by no
means an overdrawn statement . If we also consider the fact, that every
human being in the country must have timber in some form or another for
his protection or comfort — that our shelter is of timber, the floors we walk
on, the chairs we sit on, the tables we eat from, even our cradles and coffins
being of wood —we can readily see how overwhelmingly important is this great
question of timber supply. Then, too, the numerous industries engaged in
the various processes concerned in the use of this material and the hundreds
of thousands (yes, millions) of laborers directly depending thereupon for
their livelihood, prove that timber is an article required by every individual
of the whole community, and it must be conceded that every means should
be adopted for its preservation and protection.

" While England, which has cheap coal, cheap iron, and cheap labor, and
which can get her supplies at the cheapest rates from the north of Europe
annually expends nearly $100,000,000 for timber, one can readily recognize
how much it would cost the United States ( a country that has yet to build
up, and which annually consumes in sawn lumber alone more than ten times
as much, and in other products fully fifty times as much as Great Britain)
to import its lumber from any foreign source. It has been estimated that
it would take the entire sailing tonnage of the world to convey the amount
of timber annually consumed in America from any foreign lumber port. But
where to get it at any reasonable price in the enormous quantities used in
that country is a question that would puzzle those best informed on the sub-
ject to determine.

'' The word ' destruction ' has in the preceding remarks been used advi-
sedly. American forests are not exploited as in Europe. To remove a large
trunk, sometimes fifty smaller trees are cut down, and this ruthless denu-
dation is resorted to simply to save a small amount of extra labor ; where-
as the trees needlessly felled, and the tops and branches of the one actually
required, are left to rot in the woods, or, what is worse, to lie as fuel for the
flames, and aid in burning up the remaining timber.

" And respecting forest fires, which the lumberman is constantly prating
as an excuse for his reckless cutting of timber, it may be said that, from the
condition in which the woods are left during and after his operations, it
would appear to require almost the interposition of Providence to prevent
their burning, as they often do, incase of an accidental spark, and, of course,
when they get control, carrying devastation around them; but with proper
legislation, and an enlightened public opinion to lead Americans to look
upon the tree as one of his best friends, there should be but little danger from
fire.

" Moreover, if the timber-land owner would annually expend the same
percentage he is wiUing to spend to insure other property of like value
towards putting his timber property in a safe condition, he could so place it
that it would be difficult to set it on fire so as to do any serious injury."

16 "TO GET KID OF THE TIMBER."

(No better evidence of this fact, if such were requisite, can be found than
that in the past ten years the Michigan lumbermen have already harvested
nearly the whole amount of pine estimated by the census, and have yet some
more remaining.

I will now say what I know will be considered rank heresy by many
otherwise well-informed persons — that in many parts, I can safely say the
most of the Northern States and Canada, outside of mountainous slopes and
peaty soil — fire [which is by all odds, after the axe, the greatest destroying
agency] is, when we take into consideration the vast area of the forests, by
no means so alarmingly prevalent or general that timber should be con-
sidered even a hazardous risk. Talking from personal experience, for
over half a century, — first, my father, and, later on, myself, continuously
owned timber property, often amounting to tens of thousands of acres of
freehold land, for many years at a time, and hundreds of thousands of acres
in timber limits. I am safe in saying an annual premium of insurance of one-
twentieth of one per cent, would have fully compensated any loss by fire
in valuable timber during that period. In France, a much dryer country
than that bordering the Lakes, or Eastern Canada and the United States,
fully grown forests are insured at one-tenth of one per cent. — a rate which
I have no doubt would be profitable to insurance companies in this country,
provided, of course, people would look upon such property as worthy of
protection. And this bugbear, so frequently alluded to, I had occasion to
treat, when discussing the subject of forest land investments, in another
letter to the London Times, August, 1883, to counteract the erroneous idea
which prevails of the great risk of such property from fire.) (For this
letter see Appefidix.)

"I shall not refer to the climatic or other effects claimed to be of a serious
character which denudation of the forests is said to bring upon a country.
These matters I leave to the elucidation of scientific minds, that better under-
stand the subject and can properly treat it. The commercial aspect of the
question is all I claim to possess any knowledge of, and this I believe is of
such paramount importance that it should arrest the attention of all thinking
people.

'' It may be said that the active American mind, always ready with expe-
dients, would be alive to its importance; but the truth is that the American
mind has, up to the present time, been devoted towards getting rid of the
timber, and in this, as in most other efforts, it has been eminently success-
ful; so the question is now, how to change the current of public opinion in
America from that of antagonism against trees to that of appreciation of
them, and in my opinion this can soonest be brought about by constant
agitation and reiteration of the true state of the facts. The formation of
Forestry Associations and the institution of ' Arbor Days ' are having excel-
lent effects, and will no doubt be productive of a great amount of good in
this direction."

" TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER." 17

The foregoing, written nearly seven years ago, and the little interest yet
taken in the subject, shows how futile is any attempt at reformation, unless
the press of the country takes an active and intelligent interest therein ; and
how can we expect other journals to look on this matter except with incre-
dulity when those that are expected to know utter no sound ? With the
lumber duties removed, the great lumber trade journals, which are no doubt
now chafing under the restraints imposed upon them, will speak out in
terms so pronounced as to call universal attention to this momentous ques-
tion. Otherwise, in my opinion, the case of the forests of the Northern States
is entirely hopeless.

As regards the timber of the South, I can only speak of that part of the
country which I visited ; but from several months' travel in the South Atlantic
and Gulf sections, for the purpose of gaining information, I am led to believe
there is not in that part of the country the superabundance of timber sup-
posed by many to exist. The impression I formed was, that there was no
more there than prudence would indicate should be required for home use,
so soon as any material local development took place.

In the cypress swamps and river bottoms and on some of the rich humuck
lands I found considerable bodies of tine timber, equal to some of our best
Northern tracts — consisting in the swamps of the valuable cypress, and else-
where varieties of oak, bay, magnolia and other hard woods, and sometimes
a few scattering good-sized short-leaved pine ; I have also seen many small
groves of iine long-leaved pine (the yellow or pitch pine of the United States
timber trade) ; but in the vast flat woods and rolling pine land districts, I have
travelled, for weeks at a time, through country, the general aspect of which
resembled more that of an open park, from which all the large timber had
been removed, than a well timbered country, so few trees of a size recog-
nized as valuable a few years ago in the North were to be seen ; and I think
the amount given in the census returns of 1880, which were made by Dr.
Charles Mohr of Mobile, a gentleman fully competent for the work, will
prove to be fairly accurate. I found also, what I was grieved to see, several
very destructive agencies at work — one was the destructive turpentine farm-
ing, which had already and was still ruining vast bodies of this timber ;
and even a still more objectionable process called ''deadening," which was
carried on after this manner. The whole country being at that time
(1880) "no man's land," a settler would look around for a place to locate,
and, as is usually the case, the richer the soil the larger the growth of tim-
ber— this would indicate the spot to be settled on. The first thing then to
be done was to kill the trees by girdling them, so that there would be no
foliage to obstruct the sun's action on the soil. The soil itself being princi-
pally sea-sand, the chief nourishment comes from the slight covering of
vegetable leaf mould, which, after a few years' cultivation, loses its fertilizing
properties, and the settler would then have to look up a new location to
repeat this process of destruction to the timber — one man thereby destroy-
ing far more timber than by clearing the land, which would require more

B

18

time and be a more expensive process. I also found even then (ten years
ago) parties going back as far as ten miles from the streams to pick up a
single large tree, for which an extra price would be paid — it being a matter
of great importance to the shipper to have a fair average size in the rafts to
be sent to market — a process that I was informed had been general through-
out the South for a number of years ; and since these large trees appeared to
me to be about one out of a thousand, this process, if kept up for any
length of time, would soon leave the country without any considerable
amount of good-sized timber remaining.

'J^he timber itself^ whether large or small, is a very vahiable wood, strong
and durable, but heavy and resinous, being nearly the same weight as
white oak. One would be disappointed, however, if he expected the same
sized tree of this timber to have the same amount of heart-wood as in the
white pine, for in most sections, especially among the thrifty growing trees,
the sapwood is sometimes very thick. I measured on an i8 inch log 5
inches of sapwood — there are some sections of thin sap timber, but this
timber is usually not large. I believe that the pine timber further south
and west was larger and more plentiful, but my experience was there the
same as elsewhere, that the really good timber wa.6 " somewhere else " ; and
whatever there may be will be fully required at home.

On the Pacific, however, one meets with a growth of timber marvellous
in its size and height ; and after seeing a really good tract of Douglas fir or
Redwood, one is prepared to believe any report, however apparently
incredible it may appear. I have myself, in British Columbia, seen from
50 to 80 trees — many in height from 100 to 150 feet to the limbs, 5 to 15 ft.
in diameter at the butt — to average probably 7000 feet to the tree, or say
from 300,000 to 500,000 feet per acre.

This timber is almost exclusively Douglas fir, with usually some very
large cedars, larger butted but shorter than the fir — the cedars, however,
when over 8 ft. in diameter, are usually hollow at the butt ; still a trunk, 15 ft.
in diameter, will often give a dozen or more logs out of a cut larger than
our present eastern averages.

There are also scattering white pine trees very tall, round and sound,
many up to seven feet, and even over this on the stump ; but the number of
such trees is not great. But, if any one were to fancy from this that there
was an inexhaustible supply of this kind of timber, he would be greatly
mistaken. These really fine tracts of timber were not to be found of as
great extent as I had imagined. They are confined to special spots, usually
at the foot-hills of the mountains and along ravines bordering on rivers,
creeks and around the lake , but not on the river bottom lands, which are
usually cotton-wood, alder and other varieties of hard-wood. This Pacific
Coast timber will, however, all be required for Lower CaHfornia, South
America, Australia and other foreign markets, but which, if called on for
supplies for the East, would not only require the five existing railways, but
give twenty-five lines more each ten million dollars annual freight to trans-
port it across the continent.

" TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER." 19

Knowing as I did at that time how little value was placed on such pro-
perty in America, and how little value the public placed on the " free gifts of
Providence," when they saw no immediate money in them, and that in
all civilized foreign countries, many of them far better supplied with timber
for their immediate necessities than either the United States or Canada,
the smallest twig or fagot was looked upon as property of some value, I
addressed a letter to the London Times in August, 1883, ^i^^ the hope that
if Americans would not look upon such property as of vakie, foreigners might
do so, reference having been made by Mr. Plimsol to the difficulty of
finding proper investment for British capital. From this letter I extract
the following: ''When speaking of the subject of investments, I crave the
favor of drawing your attention to a source of investment, which I believe
to be not only one of the best and safest possible, but one which would be
productive of incalculable good to the countries in which the investment is
made, as well as of benefit to the people of this country (Great Britain). I
allude to the investment of capital in the timber lands of America, for, owing
to conditions which it might take up too much of your valuable space to ex-
plain, this description of property has hardly yet begun to assume the status
of capital at all, it having been considered almost up to the present moment
generally, and is now to a large extent considered simply, as something
on which to employ capital rather than as capital itself. This fact has been
productive not only of losses to the manufacturers of timber, but is the cause
of a great deal of dissatisfaction among those who have its disposal, as it
has continually led, when any encouragement has been given by slightly
advanced prices, to over-production and consequent loss.

" In confirmation of the above fact, it is pertinent to state that it is only
within the last eighteen months that any concerted effort has been made in
America to draw attention to the importance of this subject. Two meetings
were held last year, — one in Cincinnati and the other in Montreal — of an asso-
ciation called the American Forestry Congress, which were attended by pro-
minent men both from the United States and Canada; and what Httle inte-
rest there may now be taken in the subject may be justly attributed to the
discussions and information furnished at these meetings, so that as yet it may
be said that there is hardly a public opinion formed on the subject, not-
withstanding it is the most momentous question for the future welfare of the
United States and Canada, it being not only the largest manufacturing
interest of Canada, but also of the United States, whether regarded in the
value of products or number of operatives employed, and yet we are informed
by those specially engaged by the United States Government to investigate
the subject, that the supplies of those descriptions of timber — the white pine
{pinus-strobus — the yellow pine of the British market) and spruce which have
furnished in the past nearly the whole of the commercial timber of the
Northern States and Canada, and now supply fully three-fifths of the whole
stock of this indispensable material — will have entirely disappeared from the

20 "TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER/'

forests of the United States within the short space of seven years, at the
present reckless rate of cutting.

*' My object in drawing attention to this matter is to show the increasing
value of this property, arising from the destruction going on in the existing
supply of timber, and that while the consumption of this material keeps pace
with the increasing wealth and population of the country, the supply is not
only of a limited amount, but is rapidly diminishing.

" Moreover, it may be said that whatever sentiment has existed in America
has been, and is still largely so, rather towards getting rid of the forests as
rapidly as possible than preserving them ; so that while millions of money are
employed, and ready to be furnished to any amount by bankers and others for
the conversion of timber, there is none whatever employed in its preservation
or protection."

And this is so, simply because Americans have not yet become educated
to the knowledge of considering timber as property capable of being con-
verted into money at any time when required, as is the case in all other
civilized countries, but rather as something on which to employ capital in
its conversion for market ; so that while millions upon millions are ready
to be used or loaned for its conversion — yes, even for its destruction —
there is none whatever forthcoming for its preservation^ not to mention
such a remote idea as its production.

And I might here say that every year since then pine stumpage in Canada
and the United States has been rising in value, and what could then be bought
at $4 per thousand on the stump in Michigan cannot to-day be had for less than
$10 per M, though the product in lumber has but slightly increased in price,
while the relative increase in value of standing pine timber in Wisconsin and
Minnesota has been still greater, though it has not yet reached one-quarter its
actual value for home requirements.

We will no doubt be told that nothing could have been done ; but this
is not so, as a great deal might have been done if the lumbermen had con-
ducted their operations properly, when not only would the country be much
better off but the lumbermen as well. In March, i88r, about the time when
the actual condition of the pine forests (which condition was previously known
by all well-informed lumbermen), as ascertained by the gentlemen connected
with the census, was announced to the public, I published a letter in the New
York Times, from which I transcribe the following closing paragraph : —

" It is to be hoped, now that the Government has come into possession of
the facts, it will take means to enlighten the public on this most important sub-
ject. An enlightened public opinion can do much to aid in stemming the tide
of destruction which is now going on with reckless precipitancy. A knowledge
of the value of their property will cause owners to be more careful of it,
and not be disposed to part with it to go abroad at one-tenth the value it
will have in a few years standing in their forests for their own wants.
The substitution of spruce, hemlock and other woods for such purposes as they

"TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER." 21

are suitable ; by stopping the frightful butchery of this timber, which is now
going on by the use cf circular saws, that turn one-quarter of the log into
sawdust ; by allowing the younger trees to grow, by the Government withhold-
ing its timber lands from sale ; by preventing, if possible, the making of square
timber in the woods, by which one-third of the tree is cut into score blocks and
shavings, furnishing the most fruitful sources of fire ; and by throwing open the
ports to the free entry of timber to any country that may be willing to spare
it; and now that this timber is about gone, if the lumber papers will give their
patrons correct information on this important subject, some little may yet be
done to extend the supply of this indispensable timber."

I think if the suggestions above thrown out had been acted on at the
time, that matters would not now be in quite as bad a shape as they actually
are, and though I know, as I have said above, the Governments are not wholly
to blame, yet in this respect they are specially to blame, in so legislating as to
cause the public to believe it is a good thing *' to get rid of the timber " — the
Government of the United States by imposing duties on timber products,
and that of Canada by aiding in any manner in getting rid of the timber.

Though we in Canada may not be in as bad condition as our neighbors, yet
it is rather owing to having a more difficult country to work in than from any
care on the part of the Government or even the lumbermen,that we have still a
moderate amount of good pine and spruce timber remaining ; and lest it might
be thought that my own representations might be warped in any way by the
imminently serious manner in which I view this question, one about which
I do not hesitate to say I am thoroughly in earnest, I will quote a few para-
graphs from the admirable report on the Canadian Forests, submitted to the
Government about twelve years ago by the Hon. H. G. Joly de Lotbiniere
(Seigneur, late Premier of the Province of Quebec), and which I may here say
is the first really valuable report we ever had on this subject; and since
the forests have not improved in any respect since then, I trust it may tend
to allay the very uneasy feeling of the American lumbermen lest we should
swamp the United States with pine and spruce lumber, were the pernicious
duties, so frequently referred to, removed.

And after referring to the older settlements of the Province of Quebec
being painfully bare of trees, Mr. Joly sums up his Report on *' the Present
State of our Forests " by saying, " that it is very far from satisfactory and
leaves much room for improvement." But in his very able Report he does
not stop short at **the state of the forests," but shows his clear insight into
everything appertaining to the subject, by accounting for the facts of a
continued over-production of wood side by side with rapidly receding and
diminishing supplies. In alluding to the over-production he says : —

" There cannot be a greater waste of any marketable commodity than by over-production.
It is unavoidable, as the extraordinary success of any given branch of industry is certain
to produce it ; but generally it does not take long after its fatal effects are felt before the
evil cures itself. Unfortunately our timber trade is an exception to that rule. In the
face of a glutted market we persist in our over-production, as if we expect to relieve the

22 "TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER."

market by glutting it still more." And elsewhere he says : — " We are not spending the income
or annual profits of our forests, but the forests themselves ; not the interest, but the capital."
(^For further extracts from Mr. Joly^s report see Appendix^

The foregoing is a picture made some twelve years ago of the condition
of the Canadian forests by a gentleman thoroughly conversant with the
timber trade — an enthusiast on the subject of forestry, and having recourse
to every available source of information on the subject. What can we
gather from his statements, but that Canada is almost in the same deplorable
condition as the United States as regards its stock of merchantable Pine tim-
ber. And that he has not since discovered any more favorable aspect in this
matter, we can gather from his remarks in an address delivered by him recently
before the Natural History Society of Montreal, in which, while paying a grace-
ful tribute to the memory of my father, he indicates to a certain extent
his present opinion regarding the forests. In this connection he said: —

" The late James Little of Montreal, who was the first to sound the alarm,
deserves to be gratefully remembered by Canada. When every one treated
our pine as if the supply were inexhaustible, he was the first to call attention
to its rapid disappearance. His warnings were met not only with indiffer-
ence, but with ridicule. Now, the eyes of the most sceptical are opened,
and they must admit that he was right; but it is sad to see them turn
around now, and affirm that it is no use devising means for the protection of
our forests, because there is nothing left in them worth protecting. There
is still a good deal left worth caring for and improving. It is late, but not
too late."

Such language from such a source should at least cause our Government
to give some little thought to the imminence of the situation.

There is a " good deal worth caring for and improving " hardly warrants the
idea that we have any such superabundance as to offer a bounty " to get rid
of the timber." There is no doubt we have still some good Pine and consid-
erable good Spruce timber remaining, that with careful and prudent manage-
ment would supply the home and the export trade to Europe and South
America for a good many years, yet it would supply for but a limited period
the thousands of millions of feet that will be required by the United States,
when it has parted with its White Pine and Spruce timber, and when it has
no other source of supply for this description of wood than Canada — and
from no other source can it be obtained so cheaply as it can from Canada >
so that if we act with prudence, and husband our wealth of timber, there
is yet a great future in store for our country. But it is not by using our
efforts to get rid of our timber resources in the reckless manner we have
been doing in the past, but rather by restricting the cutting, by more care-
ful manufacture, and by considering every growing tree as so much capital
not to be parted with without valuable consideration, that we shall accom-
plish this object. For this result we shall not have long to wait, for though
it may take a few more years to entirely exhaust the White Pine timber of
the United States, by far the largest portion of it lies within the extreme

"TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER." 23

Northwest, contiguous to that great prairie world which is now being so
rapidly developed, and which will require all the timber that grows there
In fact, the population of the prairie districts are even now planting trees
to provide for their future wants. Moreover, a knowledge of the true condi-
tions has so advanced the price of standing Pine in the West, that the price
of the manufactured article must continue to advance very rapidly for the
future, as there is no other wood in America or elsewhere that is applicable
for so many purposes and of such general use.

It has often been said that there would soon be found a substitute for
wood ; if so, it is quite time the discoverer brought it forward, for up to the
present the ingenuity of the "everlasting Yankee" has not even touched
thematter. Notwithstanding the fences of wire, the use of iron in building,
the terra cotta and straw lumber, the consumption of our old friend wooden
lumber increased nearly 50 per cent, in the United States in the ten years
from 1870 to 1880, the former being 12,755,543,000, and the latter 18,091-
356,000 feet, while a still greater increase has taken place in the last ten,
years, so that it is anticipated the present census for 1890 will show, as
has been said above, the enormous total of 30,000,000,000 feet of sawn
lumber manufactured annually in the United States, an amount that can
hardly be comprehended by the mind, but sufficient to load a train of cars
25,000 miles long, or enough to encircle the earth at the equator !

I have no doubt that many gentlemen will think that I have been a little
carried away by my own enthusiasm on the subject of forestry, but I will
here give the views held on this question by a couple of intelligent foreigners.

Dr. Felix L. Oswald, in a paper on " The Climatic Influences of Vegeta-
tion," written for the Popular Science Mo?ithly^ says : —

" All over Spain and Portugal, Southern Italy, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Persia, in
Western Afghanistan and through Western Africa, from Morocco to the valley of the Nile,
the aridity of the soil makes the struggle for existence so hard that, to a vast majority of
the inhabitants, life, from being a blessing, has been converted into a curse,

" Southern Spain, from Gibraltar to the head waters of the Tagus, maintains now only
about one-tenth its former population, and Greece about one-twentieth. As late as A.D.
670, a good while after the rise of the Mohammedan power, the country now known as
Tripoli, and distinct from Sahara only through the elevations of the mountains, was the
seat of eighty-five Christian bishops, and had a population of 6,000,000, of which number
three-fourths of one per cent, are now left.

'* The rivers of some of these countries have shrunken to the size of their former tribu-
taries, and from Gibraltar to Samarcand the annual rain- fall has decreased till failure of
crops has become a chronic complaint. And all this change is due to the insane destruc-
tion of forests. The great Caucasian Sylvian, that once adorned the birth-land of the
white race from the Western Pyrenees to the front hills of the Himalayas, has disappeared.
Of the forest area of Italy and Spain of the elder Pliny about two acres in a hundred are
left ; in Greece hardly one."

And returning to a consideration of some portion of this country he
says: —

" The States of Ohio and Indiana and the southern portion of Kentucky and Michigan,

24 "TO GET RID OF THE TIMBER."

so recently a part of the great Eastern- American forest, have even now a greater percen-
tage of treeless area than Austria and the Northern German Empire, that have been settled
and cultivated for upwards of a thousand years.

" The true basis of national wealth is not gold, but wood. Forest destruction is the
sin that has cost us our earthly paradise. "War, pestilence, storms, fanaticism and intem-
perance, together with all other mistakes and misfortunes, have not caused half as much;
permanent damage as that fatal crime against the fertility of our Mother Earth.^'

And the Hon. Carl Schurz, late Secretary of the Interior, U.S., in an
address delivered before the American Forestry Association at Philadel-
phia, Oct., 1889, from which I extract a few remarks, says : —

" I know the advocates of the cause to which you are devoted are looked upon by
many as a set of amiable sentimentalists, who have fallen in love with the greenmess of the
woods, and break down in hysteiic wails when a tree is cut down. I assure you I have
been led to take an earnest interest in this subject by considerations of an entirely unsenti-
mental, practical nature, and this no doubt is the case with most of you. The more study
and thought I have given the matter, the firmer has become my conviction that the des-
truction of the forests of this country will be the murder of its future prosperity ana pto-
gress. This is no mere figure of speech, no rhetorical exaggeration. It is simply the
teaching of the world's history, which no fair-minded man can study without reaching the
same conclusion.

" No country ever so great and rich,no nation ever so powerful, inventive, and entei^prising,
can violate the laws of nature with impunity. We most grievously delude ourselves if we
think that we can form an exception to the rule. And we have made already a most dan-
gerous beginning, and more than a beginning, in the work of desolation. The destruction
of our forests is so fearfully rapid that, if we go on at the same rate, men whose hair is
already grey will see the day when in the United States, from Maine to California, and from
the Mexican Gulf to Puget Sound, there will be no forest left worthy of the name.

" Who is guilty of this destruction ? It is not merely the lumberman cutting timber on
his own land for legitimate use in the pursuit of business gain ; it is the lumberman who,
in doing so, destroys and wastes as much more without benefit to anybody.

*• It is not merely the settler or the miner taking logs for his cabin, and fence rails and fire-
wood, or timber for building a shaft, but it is the settler and the miner laying waste acres
or stripping a mountain slope to get a few sticks. It is all these, serving indeed legitimate
wants, but doing it with a wastefulness criminally reckless.

"It is the timber thief, the tourist, the hunter, the mining prospector who, lighting his
camp fire in the woods to boil water for his coffee or to fry his bacon, and leaving that fire
unextinguished when he proceeds, sets the woods in flames and delivers countless square
miles of forest to destruction.

" It is all these, but it is something more, and, let us confess it, something worse. It is
a public opinion looking with indifference on this wanton, barbarous, disgraceful vandalism.
It is a spendthrift people recklessly wasting irs heritage. It is a Government careless of the
future and unmindful of a pressing duty. "

These are words, not of silly sentimentalists, but of thoughtful, intelligent
men, that know whereof they speak, born and educated in a country
where improvidence is almost considered a crime — and uttered with the
serious earnestness of positive conviction. Yes, let us go on in our reckless
extravagance, and we will soon be brought to a realization of what it means
" to get rid of the timber."

It must not be inferred, from anything I have said, that I am in favor of

"TO GET EID OF THE TBIBER." 25

export duties, or of restrictive duties of any nature in our trade relation
with our cousins across the Hne, for I have always advocated the freest
trade relations between the two countries, believing, as I do, that where
the conditions are so nearly alike, any advantages possessed by one
would be fully counterbalanced by other advantages gained by the other,
and the general result would be beneficial to both. But, while the U. S.
Government imposes a duty on sawn lumber, we should retain at least such
duty on saw logs as not to place our own people at a disadvantage, and give
the Americans the whole benefit to be derived from our own timber ; and I
feel that, considering the rapidity with which the white pine and spruce
timber of the United States and Canada is being exhausted, any fiscal
policy tending to the loss of this timber without some special advantage
to be gained therefrom would be disastrous to Canada, so that I do not
view with satisfaction the consent, said to have been given, of removing
the whole export duty from saw logs, in case the United States Government
reduces the import duty on lumber to $i per thousand feet. The furthest
concessions I would think of making would be "free logs for free lumber.'*
It would be in my opinion to the advantage of the people of Canada
for the Government to pay the manufacturers such profits, for the next
five years, as they can show they made during the past five years, over the
value of the standing timber, on U. S. shipments, rather than enter into
any arrangement tending " to get rid of the timber." And I also say that
it would be better for the Province of Quebec to take the settlers, whom
they are even now inducing to locate on land valuable only for the timber —
far better, as I have so often said, for the good of the country, even to board
them at the public expense at our most costly hotels than to permit these
misguided people to wear out their lives in a struggle for a miserable
existence from the Laurentian rocks, which are at once exposed when
they attempt to clear the land of timber — the only valuable crop it is
capable of producing. But, better still, to pay these people to plant in
timber tens of thousands of the acres that have already been rendered
worthless, by clearing off the timber, and from which to attempt to make a
living is simply a strife against nature.

Lest it might be thought I am pressing the matter of planting trees as
a means of providing for future use (a measure by no means so absurd as
many will, no doubt, consider it), I may here remark, the whole immediate
object I have in view is to protect from spoliation and waste the supplies
that a beneficent Providence has already planted for our use, and which we
are destroying with a prodigality so appalling as to fully justify its being
characterized by my father and Mr. Schurz, in almost identical terms, as
*' wanton, barbarous, disgraceful vandaHsm. "

Less than twenty years ago, I visited nearly all the saw mills between here
to and including Quebec, and nearly all the mills along and on the
tributaries of the St. Lawrence were sawing almost exclusively white pine

26 "TO GET BID OF THE TIMBER."

saw logs — while at present the few which still remain are confined almost
entirely to cutting spruce and hemlock, much of this even of an inferior
grade. And the logs now sawn at the Ottawa mills will not turn out over
sixty per cent, of their stock into grades better than culls. And the rafts
of superior pine that ran from 80 to 100 feet average (about twenty-five
years ago I myself sold a raft in Quebec of 148 feet average) now run from
50 to 80 cubic feet average.

I have already said that the present annual production of sawn lumber
in the United States would load a train of cars 25,000 miles long, or long
enough to encircle the earth, and I fancy some will be surprised at such
figures ; but it is figures like these that force all who will reflect on the
matter, to use expressive adjectives whenever treating of its importance ;
but this sawn lumber is only a small part of the forest freight, there are still
all other forest products ; and when we add timber for railway and fencing,
mining and export, round and hewn timber, we have our train loaded
72,000 miles ; and if to this we then add the firewood, etc., amounting alone
to 216,000 miles, we have a total train of 288,000 miles in length, or more
than enough to reach from the earth to the moon, still leaving our
lumber train encircling the earth with 23,000 miles of a train to spare 1 —
its weight alone, if gr':en, over five hundred million toKS, or enough to load
five hundred thousand (500,000) ships of one thousand (1000) tons each I

The whole of these timber products handled annually by the American
workman not only shows what a mighty weapon is the axe in the hands of the
skillful chopper, but leaves all other agencies — whether of fire, flood, or
tempest — so completely in the rear, that in the race of destruction they may
be said to be practically '^ no where."

I have shown above that two-third»of this enormous amount of timber is
annually consumed by our immediate neighbors, separated from us only by
an imaginary line or by short stretches of water.

I have also shown that the forests of this vast territory, extending from
the confines of New Brunswick to the head waters of the Mississippi, are
almost on the verge of immediate exhaustion ; and yet so ignorant or indif-
ferent are the people of the United States to the seriousness of the situation,
that they are even now higgling about what special restrictions they can impose
upon Canadian lumber. Let them increase the duty by all means. " Olym-
pus high" if they like — the higher the better in my opinion — for they will
then the sooner know how grievously they have erred, and how imprudent
they have been, when they are compelled to pay these duties themselves,
and Canadians are able to get what prices they want for their lumber.

But, if we continue stocking American saw mills with logs, taken from our
already too scanty supply, to forestall the markets in advance of our own
manufacture, and keep slashing away at our timber as we have always been
doing, overstocking the markets as if it were something to be exterminated
at any cost, and, with the Government, the capital, and, I may say,

"TO GET EID OF THE TIMBER.'^ 27

the public of the country, when not indifferent, all arrayed against the
forests, and animated with the same destructive impulse, we will no doubt
soon be able "to get rid of the timber," and get rid at the same time of the
most valuable property we ever had, or may ever expect to have in our
country.

Even the poet cannot remain silent (as appears, from the following lines
taken from the New York Sufi) when contemplating the condition of

"A TREELESS COUNTRY."

" I had a dream which was not all a dreamy
" A great State was a desert, and the land
Lay bare and lifeless under sun and storm,
Treeless and shelterless. Spring came and went,
And came, but brought no joy ; but, in its stead,
The desolation of the ravening floods.
That leaped like wolves or wild -cats from the hills,
And spread destruction over fruitful farms,
Devouring, as they went, the works of man,
And sweeping seaward Nature's kindly soils,
To choke the water-courses worse than waste.

**The forest trees, that in the olden time —
The people's glory and the poet's pride —
Tempered the air and guarded well the earth.
And, under spreading boughs, for ages kept
Great reservoirs to hold the snow and rain,
From which the moisture thro' the teeming year
Flowed equably but freely — all were gone.
Their priceless boles exchanged for petty cash,
The cash that melted and had left no sign ;
The logger and the lumberman were dead j
The axe had rusted out for lack of use ;
But all the endless evil they had done
"Was manifested on the desert waste.

** Dead springs no longer sparkled in the sun ;
Lost and forgotten brooks no longer laughed ;
Deserted mills mourned all their moveless wheels ;
The snow no longer covered, as with wool.
Mountain and plain, but buried starving flocks
In Arctic drifts j in rivers and canals
The vessels rotted idly in the mud.
Until the spring flood buried all their bones ;
Great cities that had thriven marv'lously,
Before their source of thrift was swept away,
Faded and perished, as a plant will die
With water banished from its roots and leaves ;
And men sat starving in their treeless waste.
Beside their treeless farms and empty marts,
And wondered at the ways of Providence ! "

WILLIAM LITTLE.
Montreal, June lo, 1890.

APPENDIX.

In 1883, having occasion to discuss the matter of the importance of the
lumber trade to the city of Chicago, I obtained a copy of one of the daily
journals containing the Port List, which I tabulated as below, to show how
greatly it preponderated over all other business of that port for one day.

CHICAGO PORT LIST. Arrivals Sept. 17th, 1883.

Sundries — South Haven, simr. Grammond, props. Huntress and Mary Groh ; Muskegon,
prop. Menominee ; Benton Harbor, prop. Lora ; Saugatuck, prop. Seaverns ;
Sheboygan, stmr. Manitowack ; Garden Bay, Merchant.

Excluding the above mentioned, passenger or market boats, there were : —

Sundries — Buffalo, props. Avon, Arabia, Russia, Jay Gould 4

Erie, prop. Lehigh ; Duluth, prop. Peerless 2

Coal — Buffalo, schrs. Danforth, Homer, Sage, Hayes, Hazard 5

Charlotte, schrs. Comanche, Jamaica, West Side; Oswego, Mystic Star 4 9

•

Pig Iron — Escanaba, schrs. Geo. C. Finney, Lem Ellsworth 2

Iron Ore — St. Ignace, schr. Stampede i

Salt — Buffalo, schr. Lady Dufferin I

Fish — Beaver Isle, schr. Hattie Fisher I

Gravel — Waukegan, schrs, Laura Johnson, J. C. King 2

Paving Stone— Grindstone Isle, schr. Mary Lyon i

Total, excluding forest products 23

FOREST PRODUCTS.

Lumber — Muskegon, schrs. Hawkins, Morse, Rockaway, Ramedary, Laura John-
son, Mount Desert, Candor, Holt, Conway, Advance, Topsy H

Menominee, schrs. Imperial, Mary E. Perew, Fred. Carney, Minekaunee,

Anna Maria, J. L. McLarren, Evra Fuller, A. Mosher, Herschel 9

Manistee, prop. Hilton, schrs. Emeline, C Michaelson, C. H. Hockery,

Helen Pratt, A. O. Hanson, Ida, J. B. Prime 8

Marinette, schrs. Stephenson, Mike Corry, Goodman, DeWolf, Adirondac. 5

Ludington,schrs. Mystic, x\ancy Dall, Conneant, Mars 4

Minekaunee, schrs . Alice, Phoenix, Olga, Clara 4

Cedar River, schrs. William Jones, A. Bradley, Fleetwing, J B. Wilbur.. . 4
Ford River, schrs. G. D. Donsman, Ford River, Resumption, Onward.... 4

Grand Haven, schrs. Knights Templar, Waneetee, Leo 3

Manistique, schrs. C Nillson, G. L. Greene 2

Bay de Noque, schrs. Orkney Lass, Belle Brown 2

Alpena, schrs. Flying Mist, Eugene Kesta 2

SturgeonRiver, schr. Jones ; Cheboygan, Steele ; Charlevoix, Kanters ; St.
Ignace, Orphan Boy ; Pine Lake, Z. G. Simmons ; Tawas, Case ;
Cecil Bay, R. J. Gibbs ; Elk Rapids, Ruby ; Grand Traverse,
Bates ; Horn's Pier, Johnson ; Pensaukee, Myrtle ; Onekama, Hayes ;
Bay City, Granger ; Suamico, Ostrich ; Jacksonport, Glad Tidings ;
Escanaba, Moselle ; Duncan City, Bay State 17

Total lumber 75

Railway Ties — Various Ports, Mary Collins, Metropolis, Cuyahoga, Mixer, Forest,

Davis, Success, A.B.C.F.M., Westchester 9

Bark " " Four Brothers, Lewis, Forest, Holmes, Rice 5

Posts " *' Libbie Nan, Ralph Campbell, Peoria, B.F. Wade.. 4

Telegraph Poles " " Oak Leaf i

Wood " " Prop. H. B. Ferine \ 1

Total forest products 95

30 APPENDIX.

From this it would appear that the marine business of the port of
Chicago almost depended on the timber trade, so great was the compara-
tive difference, — on the one side, 6 loads of sundries, 9 coal, 2 pig iron, i iron
ore, I salt, i fish, 2 gravel, and i paving stone=23; on the other, 75 loads
of lumber, 9 railway ties, 5 bark, 4 posts, i telegraph poles, i wood=95. Or
deducting the coal, salt, fish, gravel and paving stone, but 9 cargoes of
other vaUiable business as compared with 95 cargoes of forest products.

The departures for the same day, 92 in all, were 72 light to lumber ports
for more lumber, etc., as compared with 20 to all other ports, including the
market boats above mentioned. This was an object lesson which even sur-
prised myself.

The difference may not now be so great, as the trade of the port has no
doubt increased with its enormous expansion, but there is sufficient in these
figures to cause one to consider it might not be a good thing for Chicago
" to get rid of the timber."

Table of annual receipts at Chicago of lumber and shingles for the past
ten years, as furnished by Northwestern Lumberman : —

Lumber ft. Shingles pes.

880 1,565,537,118 650,922,500

881 1,929,033,000 801,795,000

882 2,123,630,150 954,548,750

883 1,840,022,000 1,139,137,000

884 1,802,727,000 895,528,000

885 1,744,699,000 765,427,000

886 1,659,563,000 775,641,000

887 1,846,187,000.. 612,990,000

888 2,012,069,000 629,685,000

889 1,921,816,000 627,252,000

18,445,283,268 7,852,926,250

FOREST FIRES.
To THE Editor of " The Times."

Sir, — I observe in 7^e Times of the 13th inst. a letter from a gentleman, alluding to my
letter to 7^Ae 7'vnes of the 8th inst., on the subject of " American Forests," and regret to
find so great ignorance on the subject of forest fires that any one should make the outrage-
ously misleading statement, that "fire has to the present time destroyed a hundred times
larger quantities (of wood) than has ever been levelled by the woodman's axe." To this
statement I take most positive exception. It has been my duty, as a member of a committee
appointed to investigate the subject of forest fires, to examine carefully into the facts ; and
though I have had myself a large experience in investigating the forests of America, I had
thoughtlessly assumed that the injury to forests from fire was much greater than the facts
warranted. And instead of the destruction from fire being a hundred times so great, as stated
by your correspondent, or being even as great as is stated at random by many who have not
investigated the subject, I am confident that more valuable timber has been cut in the past
twelve months than has been destroyed by fire in a quaner of a century, notwithstanding
that no efforts have hitherto been made to preserve this property from fire. In this matter I
am taking into account every large fire in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, Quebec, New
Brunswick, Maine, New York and Pennsylvania. And in nearly every mstance of a grand
conflagration occurring, its serious consequences were owing to the condition in which the
woods had been left by the lumberman in his previous operations. It may be remarked, con-
cerning the burning of timber, that it is only in the most exceptional cases that the large
green timber is burnt at all. A few instances have occurred where timber, growing on peaty
land, in a very dry season, the soil itself taking fire, has been burnt (or in rocky mountainous
districts having little soil covering the rocks), but in most other cases it is only the dead or
defective trees that burn,— the green timber being scorched, not burnt ; but since the scorch-
ing, if severe, kills the tree, it becomes necessary to cut the timber within a year or so, or the
grubs will injure it, though, if removed within a year, there is little injury done, since the
grubs do little more than penetrate the almost worthless sap wood the first season, and the

APPENDIX. 31

timber might all be removed before serious loss is suffered, so that, with proper legisla-
tion, and an enlightened public opinion to lead the American to look upon the tree as one
of his best friends, there should be little danger from fire. In making the above misleading
statement the gentleman has no doubt come to a too hasty conclusion, and I am willing to
exonerate him from any intent to mislead, for hardly anything can be more terrible, more
dreadful in its aspect, than a great forest fire. Still, this only shows the frightful destruc-
tion that is taking place by the woodman's axe ; and when he says he has travelled through
thousands of acres of these forests and hundreds of miles by railroad, he no doubt considers
that he has witnessed a frightful destruction of forest property ; but nine times out of ten
the woods he has seen burning have been intentionally fired, having previously parted with
their valuable timber. And an area of country which, to him, has no doubt appeared
immense, dwindles into insignificance when compared with the areas cut over annually.

Admitting that a man's vision in the forest would be bounded by a quarter of a mile
on each side, he would have to keep travelling for over 30,000 miles factually over 75,000
miles) to see the area of timber annually cut over in America.

Of course a particular loss by fire to timber belonging to an individual is often serious
like any other fire loss, but the burnt over territory in any instance is but trifling as com-
pared with the area unburni ; and whereas in other losses restoration has to be made by the
individual himself, in this case nature immediately sets to work to restore the injury done,
and notwithstanding the carelessness or wilfulness of man in allowing this property to be
destroyed, I am satisfied that the forests are being reproduced more rapidly than the
destruction from this cause takes place.

It would, of course, be only prudent in a matter of investment in timber lands, in order to
be exceptionally safe, that the area should be of large extent, and the companies to be
formed should have sufficient means to remove it from the land that had been burnt over
before any serious injury affected the valuable timber. But, as I said above, with proper
legislation and an enlightened pubUc opinion, there would he little property less liable to
risk from fire than forest lands.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM LITTLE.

The Royal Hotel, Edinburgh, Aug. 14, 1883.

Professor Charles S. Sargent — under whose supervision the admirable
report for the United States Government, of the census of 1880, on the
Forest Trees of North America, was prepared — a gentleman of exalted char-
acter, and possessing means, opportunity and intelligence for the investi-
gation, and who is, by all odds, best informed about the forests of any man in
America, says^ when treating on the subject of ^' Forest Fires : "

" The condition of the forests of Maine is interesting. They show that forest preservation
is perfectly practicable in the Atlantic region, at least when the importance of the forest to
the community is paramount

*' The very existence of the State depended upon the maintenance of the forest. The great
forests of pine could not be restored, but the preservation of the few remnants of these for-
ests was not impossible." I take the liberty of putting the remainder of this paragraph in
italics. " Fires do not consume forests upon which a whole community is dependent for
support^ and methods for the continuatice of such forests are soon found and readily put
into execution. The forests of Maine ^ once considered practically exhausted^ still yield
largely and continuously, and the public sentiment which has made possible their protec-
tion is the one hopeful symptom in the whole country, that a change of feeltng in regard to
forest property is gradually taking place. The experience of Maine shows that where cli-
matic conditions are favorable.to forest growth, the remnants of the original forest can be
preserved and new forests created, as soon as the entire community finds fo7-est preservation
really essential to its material prosperity P

The late Dr. F. B. Hough, also in his Report upon Forestry (U.S.% 1882,
p. 231, adds his testimony to the reproductiveness of the forests in Maine, by
mentioning the following, concerning the great fire which occurred near
Moosehead Lake, in 1825 : —

'* In portions of Maine that were overrun by fire in the same year (1825), and about the
same time, pine and spruce timber were succeeded by white pine, with some white birch and

32 APPENDIX.

poplar. The pine in the interval of fifty-five years has grown up into a dense forest, now of
much greater value than the original forest growth." And in a foot note he says : — " It is
the opinion of a correspondent that the birch and poplar will be eventually crowded out by
the pine and spruce, leaving the forest with the same kind of timber as before the fire."

Dr. Hough also inserts a letter from a correspondent in Burlington county,
New Jersey, who writes : —

** I have had under my care large tracts of growing timber, and have had very little
loss from fires. Our plan is to burn over our tracts early in the spring, before the sap
starts — burning up all the underbrush leaves, etc. We have found that a fire in February
does not hut the growing timber ; and should summer fires come in from adjoining pro-
perty that has been neglected, they have nothing to feed on but very green leaves, etc., and
they are much more easily controlled. Even if they go through the woods they find little
to burn ; they get up but little heat, and do but little damage. The Pemberton and New
Jersey Railroad runs through our tract, and summer fires are common ; but they hardly
require looking after, so far as our tract is concerned. I think there should be a law,
requiring every owner of timber and brush land in our general pineries to burn all the
leaves that may fall during the winter, thus leaving no fuel for summer fires."

THE TIMBER TRADE AND RECIPROCITY.

I here insert a few extracts from a letter on " The Timber Trade and
Reciprocity/' submitted by my father to the National (U.S.) Board of Trade
meeting, held at Detroit, Oct. 22, 1873, in which, after pointing out the
localities having any considerable amount of valuable timber, and the scar-
city of this material as compared with the enormous demands made upon
the forests, he stated his views, from the Canadian standpoint, on the stib-
ject of reciprocity in lumber with the United States, and thotigh one of the
earliest and most ardent advocates of protection to home industry, yet he was
also among the first to propose freedom of trade between Canada and the
United States — the only stumbhr.g block being the dread lest Canada would
thereby lose all her valuable timber without adequate returns. I mention
these facts as I observe that the American lumbermen never approach Con-
gress without mentioning his name, as the possessor of extensive Canadian
timber limits, in order thereby, I suppose, to lessen the weight of his warn-
ings. The fact is, however, that considering as he did the removal of the
duties by the U.S. would be injurious to Canada, he never afterwards favored
their removal. In this letter he treats of reciprocity in lumber as follows :

" It is, I am aware, the general opinion of the people of the United States that Canada
benefitted largely by the Reciprocity Treaty while in force ; but the very reverse is the
fact as regards lumber — Canada lost millions by that Treaty. It stimulated production
amongst us to such an extent, that the same description of lumber which, the year before it
took effect, sold in the Buffalo market at from thirteen to fifteen dollars per thousand feet,
paying one dollar duty, could not be disposed of in the same market at over seven dollars
per thousand three years after Reciprocity came in force, and it remained at lower prices
than it could be produced until the necessities of the war forced them up. The raw material
which would now be worth millions of dollars, were it standing in the forests, never re-
turned a farthing to the operators or the country ; and not only so, but the cost of a great
deal of the labor expended in manufacturing it went also to add wealth to our neighbors
across the line, while their own timber was so far preserved for future use. They and they
only were the gainers by reciprocity in lumber, while nearly all on this side engaged in
supplying their wants were ruined.

'' In inexcusable ignorance of the timber question, or an astonishing want of foresight on
the part of the lumbermen both in Canada and the United States, they continue to build
new and more capacious mills, and increase the manufacturing capacity of the old ones, as
if there were a strife among them to rid the country of some noxious thing, which their
greatest effort should be made to destroy as rapidly as possible, or as if timber could be
grown like a crop of weeds, and the Governments of both countries are doing all in their
power to help them on in this destructive policy — that of Canada by forcing its timber ter-
ritory on the market many years before it is required by the trade, and thus sacrificing it
to the injury of the revenues, the country and the lumbermen, by encouraging over-produc-
tion, and that of the United States by disposing of its timber lands for next to nothing, and

APPENDIX. S3

the imposition of duties on the foreign article, instead of forcing them to husband and pre-
serve so valuable and indespensable a product by every means within its power. Giving a
bonus for the introduction of Canada lumber, and putting a fence around what timber
they have, would be a wiser policy for them to pursue. Let them, however, slaughter away ;
they will wake up to the folly of such a course when it is too late.

" Being satisfied that Canada would be injured by reciprocity in lumber with the United
States, as I am confident it would — as it did during its continuance — have the effect of stimulat-
ing our lumbermen, who, as a body, are the reverse of being conservative in their business, to
increase the present excess of over-production, and thus again sacrifice in the interest of our
neighbors the most valuable product we possess, and which it would take generations to
replace were it possible to do so by any efforts we could make. I, for one, therefore, am
by no means anxious for a renewal of the Treaty. The time will come when they will be
glad to get our lumber on any terms."

JAMES LITTLE.

It is worthy of remark, as showing the altered conditions which have taken
place since the time above mentioned — when my father was carrying on
extensive lumbering operations in Western Canada — that this was when the
American limibermen were on their raid westward, passing through Canada
to Michigan and the West, and before any extraordinary development of
the lumber trade had begun west of Canada, that the production ot Canada
had such an influence on the lumber trade of the United States. If I were
to mention the names of Americans then operating on this side, I would
include among them most of those lumber kings whose names are now
familiar as '' household words" in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota;
and instead of this section of Canada being at all a factor in the trade, as it
was no doubt at that time, were the duties removed, so little pine is now
remaining, that Buffalo, N. Y., above mentioned, would be found the
cheapest place to purchase lumber should it be required in any quantity by
that part of Canada at the present time.

Again in 1876, in a pamphlet to the public, he writes on

''THE TIMBER SUP4>LY QUESTION."

" When, a few years ago, it was rumored that the coal fields of Great Britain would not
supply the then rate of consumption for more than two or three generations, a general
alarm at the prospect of so terrible a calamity, so soon to fall on the nation, immediately
manifested itself. It became the question of the day, the Press was full of it, had daily
leaders on it, and it was made a subject of Parliamentary inquiry, and until it was satis-
factorily ascertained, by scientific investigations and surveys, that there was coal enough in
the country for many centuries, the question was the one absorbing topic of conversation
and discussion amongst all classes in the British Isles,

'• The question of the timber supply here is of as much importance to us and the people
of the neighboring States as that of the coal supply, which so powerfully exercised the
minds of the people of Britain, could possibly be to them. Yet the most shameful waste
of this indispensable material has become the order of the day, while our Boards of Trade,
our political economists and statesmen, and the leading journals of the country, totally
ignore the subject as not worthy of their slightest notice. The question thus treated

WITH so MUCH indifference AND NEGLECT WILL, HOWEVER, IT IS CERTAIN, BEFORE
MANY YEARS ROLL ROUND, FORCE ITSELF ON THE ATTENTION OF THE WHOLE COMMU-
NITY TO SUCH A DEGREE AS TO DWINDLE ALL OTHER QUESTIONS INTO UTTER INSIGNIFI-
CANCE IN COMPARISON.

"And now, what of our neighbors across the line in this respect?

" They are following exactly the same course, but in a yet more wasteful, reckless and
unprofitable manner, if we may except our own New Brunswick operators, who appear
determined not to be outdone in their efforts at national suicide.

** The Census returns of the United States of 1870 showed a production of sawed lum-
ber alone of 12,755,543,000 feet, and if we add to that enormous amount all the timber
made into shingles, all made into hewn, flatted and round timber, used in home consump-
tion and exported, all that is wasted and used for other purposes (not including firewood and

C

34 APPENDIX.

that consumed in clearings), and all the large increase in consumption at the present time,
we may estimate the whole amount now at 20,000,000,000 of feet, equal to about 30,000,000
of tons, from which it will be seen th'it it would require fifty per cent, more than the ship-
ping of the whole world, which has a tonnage of but 18,000,000, to freight that amount from
their Pacific States and Territories to the Atlantic sea board'''' (the foregoing figures are, of
course, now nearly doubled)," from whence it must then be carried for distribution, at an
enormous additional cost, to the points of consumption, even as far west as the States, which
now furnish their thousands of millions of supply, — and when, besides, millions of con-
sumers will be added to the population calling for supplies, to intensify, if possible, the ruin
and distress which will be entailed on the inhabitants and every industrial pursuit of their
country. It is only within a year or two their political economists and their Press, with the
exception of a few lumber papers in the West, have deemed it worth their while to give a
thought to the subject, and that more with reference to its influence on the rain fall than to
the question of the extent of the supply to satisfy the future wants of their country.

^'*And here I would remark that, with respect to the Adirondack territory, it would be
better for the State of New York to pay many millions of dollars for the preservation of
the forests clothing its mountains, than 'allow them to be stripped of the timber which acts
as a reservoir for their great Hudson River. Once this region is denuded of its trees, that
river will in each succeeding spring become a tCrrent, sweeping all before it, while, for
the summer seasons, it will show nothing but a comparatively dry bed till it reaches tide
water."

And, after describing the condition of the different pine and spruce
regions of the United States, taken from the best sources of information then
attainable (this pamphlet having been written before authentic figures were
ascertained by the U. S. Census of 1880), he treats of the Canadian supply
as follows : —

' ' Turning now to the investigation of the question of our own timber supply and con-
sumption, and commencing on the Pacific side, British Columbia has, it is known, a good
supply of a description of pine which differs considerably from our white pine, with other
commercial wood ; but, whether much or little, it is so far away, as I have already remarked,
that it would be much cheappr to freight supplies from the north of Europe than from
that Province. It may be utilized to some extent when there is a railway to move it to
the Saskatchewan Valley. Northeast of the Rocky Mountains there is some timber on
the rivers of the wild north land which discharge into the Arctic Ocean, and some spruce
timber is also found on some of the streams, reaching the Northwestern shores of Hudson
Bay ; but these comparatively insignificant supplies are also too far away to be of any
account tons here in the East, and, if facilities are ever made to make them available, they
have a territory to furnish, chiefly prairie, large enough it is said to make a dozen of States
as large as the State of New York, and what will be the great drawback to the settlement
of this great country, as it will also be to the prairie States of the American Union, will
be the want of timber.

*' Next comes the Province of Manitoba, without any supply of timber except what
little may be found on the Canadian portion of the Red River, around the Lake of the
Woods, and other patches of but small account in a country almost all prairie. "

" Next we come to the rocky, barren district north of Lake Superior, and bounding the
Province of Ontario on its northwest extremity. This Province, the Province of Ontario,
was not long since a magnificent forest country, probably unsurpassed on the face of the
Globe in its wealth of timber, and especially that of the best description of white pine, in
which it abounded. That section drained by the streams which empty into Lakes
Huron, St. Clair and Erie was exceedingly rich in the commercial woods of pine, oak,
walnut, ash, elm, and white wood. They are now all but gone, hardly any can now be
seen west of the Northern Railway, which runs from Toronto to Collingwood on Georgian
Bay.

" 'I he Muskoka country on Georgian Bay, which was only a few years ago opened up to
settlement, is undergoing the same rapid process of denudation incident to all new timber
settlements. The hardwood is being burnt up to make way for the plough, and the pine is
fast disappearing under the stroke of the axe for the insatiable sawmill. That section,
with all the streams emptying in Georgian Bay up to the Sault St. Marie, does not hold as
much pine as is got out in a single season in Michigan alone. In fact it would be a wise
measure, if it could be enforced, to compel the whole Province west pf the watershed of
the Ottawa to preserve the little timber now remaining for its own use,

APPENDIX. 35

" We now reach the Valley of the Ottawa, which is the only pine timber region we
have worth giving a moment's consideration to, in discussing the question of supply ; and
yet from the information I have obtained on the subject, from those whose lives have been
mostly spent in the territory, I have every reason to conclude that, at the rate of consump-
tion going on, a single decade will be sufficient time to totally exhaust its resources. And
as we will be called on to supply the deficiency shortly to arise in the States, the time will
be correspondingly shortened."

It is only proper to remark that though the Ottawa is still producing
largely, yet the mills have been sawing for years a good deal of inferior
timber that was not at that time considered worthy of conversion into
lumber.

" The valley of the St. Lawrence from Montreal to the gulf never had a great amount of
pine timber on it. The St. Maurice lield more than the whole territory beside, and that
River has been undergoing a course of depletion for many years.

" I would now offer a few remarks regarding our spruce timber supply, a very valuable
wood which ranks next to that of pine in the amount of consumption, and enters into
competition with the lower grades of that product to a very considerable extent. The
supply of this timber this side of British Columbia available to us is confined chiefly
to the valley of the St. Lawrence below Montreal, the Eastern Townships, Nova
Scotia and New Brunswick. The Eastern Townships have been run over to a large
extent for both local consumption and foreign demand. Every stream in it has been ran-
sacked for the saw mills in the interior, on the river, and at Quebec, and there is not much
left convenient to the floating streams, and especially in the St. Francis district, outside the
lands held in fee by private parties. On the north shore of the St. Lawrence the spruce is
exhausted for many miles back, and what remains is all now held under license from the
Government of the Province, as is also the whole region below Quebec, hardly a stream oi
which but has extensive mills on it, and from all appearances this description of timber will
be as short lived in this Province as the white pine.

" Nova Scotia is also making rapid progress in ridding her soil of its wood incumbrance ;
and with regard to New Brunswick, which manufactures more spruce deals than are shipped
at Quebec of both pine and spruce, and appears determined to get rid of her timber at any
sacrifice, cannot, if the Press of that Province correctly informs us on the subject, have any
great supply now left. The St. John Telegraphy the leading paper of the Province, gives
us an idea of the state of matters there. It says : " That the increasing scarcity of timber
adjacent to the sea and the navigable rivers has within a few years become a subject of great
moment to the inhabitants of the Province. Until recently some of our people have been
accustomed to look upon our pine and spruce trees as an incumbrance to the land and un-
worthy the cost of protection. The public, however, think differently now, since they find
that one-half of the best timbered lands has been destroyed, while nine-tenths of the remainder
have been worked on so much that they have been largely deprived of their most valuable soft
tvoods,'^ and yet we find that in the face of this condition of the timber resources of the
Province, after having stripped it of its immense amount of most valuable pine timber, they
are slaughtering away at what is left of their spruce, much of it not thicker than one's arm,
and throwing it on the Engli>h markets, at auction, to such an extent as not to realize for it
more than it should now be worth standing in the forest. And thus, while utterly ruining
the trade in all descriptions of wood which competes with them on both sides of the Atlantic,
doing incalculable injury to that Province in entailing on its inhabitants one of the direst
calamities that could befal them, — a want of timber.

" An article in a recent issue of the London Timber Trades Journal mentions a sale of
300 acres of timber, grown by the Earl of Cawdor on the mountains of Scotland, whicii
brought 16,000 pounds sterling, about 80,000 dollars, and that after it had undergone
repeated thinnings which realized large additional sums ; and I will venture to say that
there are not 300 acres of timber which the lumberman of New Brunswick are now reck-
lessly throwing away but what would be worth as much in a few years time if left un-
touched.

"The question will no doubt be asked if I have any remedy to suggest for this ruinous
state of things? I would reply, our Government, having wastefully sacrificed the timber
of the country by throwing it on the market, by auction, and making presents of it to
favorites, there is none now left except a few blocks of but little timber value, which this
Province took back from the Railway projectors, who instead received money consideration
as assistance to build their roads, and it is now too late to think of its preservation to any

36. APPEi^DIX.

appreciable extent. One thing, however, Ontario at once and Quebec in two years cari
do, and that is, put a stop to the getting out of square timber in the woods, which not only
occasions the loss of one quarter of the most valuable portion of the tree, but the greater
destruction arising from cutting down trees to make into timber, but which from some
imperfection is found to be unsuited for the purpose, and is consequently left to rot in the
woods, although much of it would be found valuable for saw logs. But there is yet a far
greater destruction of the forest by fire, which follows the getting out of square timber.

"The square timber man goes into the woods, ransacks them, selecting here and there
the best timber, as it brings the most profit, and the scoreblocks and hewings he leaves
after him a few warm or dry days turn into kindling wood, which a spark will set ablaze,
and this, running along the whole length of the tree, communicates with other waste from
other trees and those around which are rejected, until the whole forest is swept by the
devouring element.

" It is very rare to find fire running through a forest where timber is cut down and burnt
to prepare the land for the plough, as the above means'of conveying and disseminating it are
wanting. A stop therefore should be put to the making of square timber for exportation,
and the Crown Lands Commissioner who neglects to do so commits a crime for which he
should, above everything eke pertaining to his office, be held responsible. As respects the
question of tree-planting, it has often been remarked that * where you cut down one tree
you should plant another,' but this procedure in the woods would only be a waste of time
and labor, as a spark reaching the debris of the trees felled would burn up those planted
in their stead, and this would, sooner or later, be their fate. The only suitable place to
plant is on worn-out cleared lands, or on the prairies, but the latter would require to be
planted with trees whose roots penetrate deep in the soil, as they would be without shelter
from the winds which sweep over the plains, the force of which would prevent any other
description from taking root. It would also be necessary to guard those planted in every
stage of their growth from the ravages of the yearly recurring prairie fires which have
hitherto kept the country in its treeless state. No provision, however, of the kind indicated,
for the supply of our future wants, appears to be yet thought of, and, even if it was at once
commenced, the country would be totally stripped of its present stock of timber long
before those plantations would be able to afford any appreciable supply of even the softest
and most valueless description of wood. And now if, in addition to the course I have
pointed out, of saving even to that extent our scanty stock, any information given in this
exposition of the supply question should have the efiect of inducing our license holders and
lumbermen to husband their resources and not throw them away, as has hitherto been too
much the case, I shall feel that my labor in that respect has been. of some service to them
and the country.

" I have now given the only course left us for eking out the time of the total exhaustion
of our forest ; and when that time is reached — when, instead of our receiving twenty-five
millions of dollars annually from our forest, we will be required to send double that amount
out of the country for supphes, I will not venture to express an opinion of its effects on our
industries, but will merely remark that it would be well for every business man to be pre-
pared to, as our neighbors across the line expressively phrase it, ' stand from under.' "

JAMES LITTLE.
Montreal, July ist, 1876.

Note.— White pine in Canada is known in Great Britain as yellow pine.

The following article, contributed in 1880 to the Montreal Horticultural
Society, may be worthy of perusal at the present time, relating to " The
Timber Question ": —

"Witnessing, as I did, while engaged in the business of lumbering, in the Western part of
the Province of Ontario, how rapidly one extensive timber section after another was stripped
of its commercial wood, my attention was necessarily drawn to an investigation of the extent
and sources of supply, both of the United States and Canada, of a material so indispensable
in the industries which minister to the wants and well-being of every individual, rich and
poor, of our whole people ; and fully realizing that the question was beyond dispute one
of the most momentous that could engage the attention of our authorities and statesmen,
I have been labouring for years, through the press and in pamphlets, to impress upon
them the necessity of adopting all possible measures for the preservation of our forests
from waste, destruction by fire, the vandalism of the lumberers, and, by withholding from

APPENDIX. ^?

market such portion of our timber territory as remained unsold, keeping off, as long as
possible, the terrible calamity of a timber famine in the country, but without effect. On
the contrary, the Governments of both Ontario and Quebec, through their Crown Timber
officials, who are generally lawyers, and consequently totally ignorant of the duties they
are appointed to administer, have been doing all in their power to hasten the stripping of
the country of its invaluable timber resources, by throwing them on the market, year after
year, without any reference whatever to the requirements of the trade, and this reprehen-
sible course has been the means of stimulating production to such an extent, by bringing new
operators into the field, that the foreign markets have been constantly glutted, the manu-
facturer, for several years prior to 1880, not realizing the cost of production.

Instead of being obliged, as they should have been, to cut the timber clean out of a place,
the lumberers were all along allowed to run over their limits and cull out the best trees,
out of which one or two logs, as the case right be, that would saw out clear lumber, were
taken out of each, while the greater part was left to rot in the woods, or furnish fuel to burn
up the remaining timber, and thus the most shameful waste and destruction were permitted
to run riot. The officials at the head of the Crown Timber Department, in both Provinces,
gave themselves no further trouble in the matter than that of collecting all the dues they
could, their chief object appearing to be to show which party official, for the time being,
could make the largest exhibit in his budget speech ; while limber, of as much value — if
standing to-day in the forest — as would pay off our national debt, has been lost to the
country.

Then after showing the enormous value and varied purposes to which the
products of the forest were put, as exhibited by the U. S. Census Report of
1870, he said : —

"Now, when we add fifty per cent, to the foregoing exhibit of the partial uses of wood and
its value at the present time, can we, with the utmost stretch of imagination, conceive
the consequences to the community when the supplies for those industries alone, with their
vast yearly increasing requirements, are cut off? The terribleness of the calamity cannot
be grasped by the mind, and will only be realized when a dearth of timber takes places — a
calamity which, in a comparative degree, we must share with our neighbors across the line,
and although it is certain to reach us in a few short years, not the slightest thought has been
given to the subject by those having control of our affairs — whether of one political party
or the other — and our lumbermen are now in the woods, with double force, slashing away as
if timber were some noxious product which it was necessary to extirpate and rid the country
of as rapidly as possible. But when we consider that it takes a century to grow a standard
pine saw-log, and the U.S. experts who were employed to estimate pine timber in Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota, which contain all they have from here to the Rocky Mountains,
gives them a supply but for one-tenth part of that time, and, when we take into account that
a million and a half of consumers will be yearly added to the population, their whole stock
will be swept away before their plantations afford timber for a hoe handle.

*' I have watched the course pursued by the lumberers of both the United States and
Canada, and it has been reckless in the extreme. A Mr. Ward, of Michigan, is the only one
among them who, it appears, is able to take a common-sense view of the question of supply
and demand. While others have been slaughtering away their timber and labouring hard
to get rid of it, as if of no value, he has been quietly picking up the most valuable lots, and
has now, I am informed, secured in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, some 2,500,000,000
feet. And this he has been able to secure at a comparatively insignificant outlay and with
but little trouble or anxiety to himself.

This amount of good white pine timber would be worth in Michigan to-
day more than $20,000,000. Timber, which could be bought at that time
in Michigan at from $2 to $3, or even less, per thousand feet, is now worth
from $8 to $10 per thousand on the stump.

" The Western papers state that a 100 acre lot of pine was recently sold in Western Ontario
for $22,000, or as much as would purchase half-a-dozen farms with their buildings and
improvements in the same neighborhood ; and near Guelph, where pine timber on a farm
lot was looked upon a few years ago as an eyesore, $1,000 were recently refused for ten
trees, which would not occupy half an acre of ground.

" Our lumberers might surely learn a lesson from those facts. It is evident that the
owner of timber land, who sat quietly by without lifting an axe, has been making more money

38 APPENDIX.

than if • he had been at work in the most productive goldmine. His bonanza is secured,
and he will be able to realize its full value in the near future, when, from the falling ofif of sup-
plies from the West, our lumberers v/ill be called on to furnish the consumption of both
white pine and spruce lumber for New York and the Eastern States, requiring them to
double their present manufacturingcapacity,andenabling themto fix both terms and price."

JAMES LITTLE.

It is only proper to state, and I do so with the greatest pleasure, that
since the foregoing article was written, we had in this Province (Quebec)
for a number of years, as Crown Lands Commissioner, a gentleman (a law-
yer too), the Honorable now Mr. Justice W. W. Lynch, who, possessing the
intelligence to fully recognize the true conditions, and aided by that ever-
zealous advocate of all beneficial reforms, the Hon. H. G. Joly de Lot-
biniere, induceed the Government of the day to set apart, as a permanent
" forest reserve, " a large area of otherwise worthless territory on the head-
waters of our great rivers, the Ottawa and St. Maurice ; and it is to be hoped
that our people will have sufficient intelligence not to disturb this truly
valuable provision by infringing thereon in any way, for it will not take long
to satisfy even the most sceptical of the very great value of a " forest reserve."

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT ON THE FORESTS OF CANADA BY
THE HON. H.G. JOLY de LOTBINIERE, QUEBEC, 1878.

In this report we find, under the heading " State of the Forests," among
other remarks made, the following : —

" They ^the forests) contain," says Mr, Joly, " a great variety of timber, but I will call
your attention principally to the Pine and Spruce, as they form nearly all our export to
Europe, and are really the produce of our forest ; while the hard-wood we export, especially
the fine Oak, nearly all comes at present from the Lake regions of the United States, as
we have very little of our own left.

" For some years past," continues Mr. Joly, '< the idea has been gaining ground among
men who take an interest in the future of the country, that our great Pine and Spruce
forests are getting rapidly exhausted, and that before long a trade which enables us to export
annually over twenty million dollars worth of timber will shrink down to wofully reduced
proportions.

" Thinking men have begun to sound the note of alarm, and we owe it to them, but espe-
cially to ourselves as a nation, to try and find out how far their previsions are likely to
prove true."

Then, after showing what difficulty the inquiry presents, he says : —
" Let us nov*try and make an inventory of the timber resources of the Dominion, begin-
ning in the west. On the Pacific shores of the Dominion, in British Columbia, the boun-
tiful gifts of Providence are still stored up for us, and the forests have scarcely been attacked
by the lumberman. Plow long these treasures will last us, and what advantages we shall
derive from them, depends in a great measure upon ourselves.

" From the Rocky Mountains to the Province of Ontario there are scattered here and
there certain tracks of well- timbered land, but they are the exception. That timber will be
required for the local wants of the people who are now only beginning to settle on our
fertile prairies."

It is now known that this prairie coimtry will require thousands of mil-
lions of feet in excess of its own stock! The report goes on to say : —

" The great forest of Canada, par excelleiice^ is spread over that vast territory watered by
the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, the Saguenay and their tributaries, over one hundred thousand
square miles in extent ; before drawing your attention more particularly to it, I will mention
our remaining timber limits, that cannot compare with it either for size or resources. They
are found in the Georgian Bay country ; the Muskoka anu Xipissing regions ; the Eastern
Townships of Quebec and south shore of the St. Lawrence, to the Gulf: the redon on the

APPENDIX. 39

north shore of the St. Lawrence, from the Saguenay down to the Bersimis, and, perhaps,
still lower down, as far as Mingan ; and the country watered by the St. John, the Mirami-
chi, the Restigouche and their tributaries. Those limits in many places are scattered and
isolated ; they have, with few exceptions (such as the Bersimis at the east, and some newly-
discovered Pine tracts at the west, on Lake Superior ), been worked for a long time, and
cannot be expected to supply, much longer, any considerable quantity of first quality Pine,
and they still contain an immense quantity of Spruce, principally in the East, sufficient for a
great many years' supply, if carefully worked and protected

" The Spruce, unlike the Pine, reproduces itself with wonderful ease, and a good Spruce
country, carefully worked, where you leave untouched all the trees under a certain size,
say twelve or thirteen inches at the foot, can be worked and worked again after a very few
years' rest. I might say almost for ever.

"As a match to the timber wealth of British Columbia in the west, there have been late-
ly discovered at the extreme east of British North America, in the recent explorations
through the hitherto unknown interior of Newfoundland, magnificent forests ; let us hope
that, before long, they will take their place among our Canadian forests.

" I will now return to the Great Canadian Forest^ our great Pine country, with its won-
derful network of streams, and its three great arteries, — the Ottawa, the St. Maurice, and
the Saguenay.

" Does it begin to show signs of exhaustion ? It is possible that, in such a short time,
man has been able to make an impression upon those millions and millions of acres of
forest ?

" If there is no sign of exhaustion, what is the meaning of the complaints that come over
the seas to us, every year louder and louder, about the falling off, in quality and size, of our
Pine, hitherto considered as the finest in the world ? Are they no more than the ordinary
complaints of the purchaser ? I leave it to our lumbermen to answer.

" But, before they answer, I will ask them why are they compelled to go now to such
enormous distances for the really superior quality of Pine they used to get so much nearer
home a few years ago ?

" Look at the map of that great region, and you will see how little of it is now left un-
touched. On the Ontario side, all the most accessible tributaries of the Ottawa, the Ma-
dawaska, the Bonnechere, Mississippi, Petewawa, and others, have been worked for years ;
the lumbermen are now round the eastern end of Lake Nipissing, with the Matawan for an
outlet to the Ottawa that can only be reached by a land road ; they are still much further
north, on the shores of the Montreal River.

" On the Quebec side, they have nearly reached the head waters of all the great tributaries
of the Ottawa, the Riviere Rouge, the Riviere du Li;"vre, the Gatineau with the St. Jean de
Terre and Lake Kakebonga and the Lac des Rapides ; they are now working three hundred
miles higher up than Ottawa, as the river runs, on Lake Temiscamingue and the Keepawa.
*' On the St. Maurice, they are as far up as Lake Manouan, on the western side of the
river ; its great tributaries, on the eastern side, the Bostonnais and the Riviere Croche,
have been deprived of the greatest part of their fine Pine ; it is now sought at the head
waters of those rivers.

'* As for the Saguenay region, it still contains a good deal of Spruce; but there is only a
limited extent of Pine still untouched, or nearly so, south of Lake St. John, between the
Metabetchouan and the head waters of tlie Riviere Croche near Commissioners Lake and
Bouchette's Lake. There is a little Pine left north of Lake St. John, and a certain quan-
tity on the River Shipsha, and in the Lower Saguenay on the Ste. Marguerite and Petit St.
Jean, etc. As for the large rivers that flow into Lake St. John, the Chamouchoua, Mis-
tassini and Peribonca, the Pine that was on the lower part of those rivers has been nearly
all cut, and the remainder of their course from their distant northern sources is through an
immense burnt up wilderness, where the vegetable soil has been consumed by fire.

" That huge tract of lumber country, between the Ottawa and the St. Maurice, that
separated (or rather appeared to separate) the lumbermen working on those two rivers,
by what seemed an inexhaustible and endless forest, — that huge tract is tapped through
and through, and the Ottawa lumberman has met the St'. Maurice lumbermen on the shores
of Lake Manouan. A glance at the map will show what that means.

' Those who think that there will never be an end to our timber may say : * We can
still go north.'

"Not very far north. From Lake Temiscamingue and the Montreal River, on the
shores of which the lumberman is plying his axe at this very moment, they cannot go very
far north before they strike the height of lands dividing the St. Lawrence water -shed

40 APPENDIX.

rom the Hudson's Bay, and the country is generally poor and barren. There is still
some fine Pine there, in what quantity is not known, along the head waters of the Ottawa,
but it cannot be brought down to market, at least as square timber, until very extensive
and costly works have been executed for the improvement of the great Rapide des Quinze.

" Once over the heights that divide the St. Lawrence and Hudson's Bay water-sheds
one from another, the streams, without which timber cannot be brought to market, all
run to the north to James's Bay and Hudson's Bay. Those regions are generally repre-
sented as a huge barren wilderness with little timber, and that mostly of a stunted growth.
There is, doubtless, some good timber ; but the idea of driving it down the Rupert, the
Notway, the Harricanaw and all those long rivers, to the shores of James's Bay, and
taking it home down Hudson's Bay eight hundred miles long, and through the dangerous
Hudson Strait, does not appear very practicable. "Whatever timber is there may as well
be considered as out of our reach for the present. In the course of time the scarcity of
timber fit for export may become so great as to encourage the lumbermen to turn their
efforts in that direction ; but that region may safely be left out of our reckoning on the
present available timber supply.

" In a very short time since the beginning of this century we have overrun our forests,
picking out the finest Pine, and we have impoverished them to a serious extent, and, what
makes it worse, impoverished the country too, for, owing to the force of circumstances
which we shall consider later, our timber export trade has not given Canada such a
return as she had a right to expect. There still remains to us a great deal of Spruce
and second-rate Pine which, for generations to come, will be in excess of our local
wants, if we are careful ; but the really fine Pine, required so keep up our great timber
export trade to its present standard, is getting very scarce and inaccessible, and I fear
we must prepare for a sudden and considerable falling off.

" While every one admits the great value of the timber trade to Canada, no one would
complain in a new and scarcely peopled country like ours, if the finest Pine forests were
to disappear and make room for fine farms. But, unfortunately, we cannot comfort our-
selves with such hope, for the soil of the Pine region is not generally favourable to agri-
culture, and when the Pine disappears the farm does not very often take its place.

" Men are the same all over the world. They never set much value upon the free gifts
of Providence, and disregaixi them in proportion to their abundance. Timber, fish, and
game have been destroyed everywhere in the same way. When what appeared to be
inexhaustible becomes exhausted, it then begins to be valuable, and we must pay for our
experience.

"Our neighbors in the United States have applied to the destruction*" of their forests
their almost superhuman activity and energy, and they are now worse off than we are for
timber. But their eyes are being opened. The President, in his last message, has
earnestly drawn the attention of Congress to the subject, and the following quotation
from the last annual report of the Secretary of the Interior shows how thoroughly they
appreciate the gravity of the situation : —

'* ' The rapidity with which this country is stripped of its forests must alarm every
thinking man. It has been estimated by good authority, that if we go on at the present
rate, the supply of timber in the United States will, in less than twenty years, fall consid-
erably short of our home necessities.

'* ^ It is time that we should turn our earnest attention to this subject, which so seriously
concerns our national prosperity." "

"Over-production in the timber trade is a greater evil than in any other business, as
the raw material cannot be replaced for generations. With a few exceptions, the lumber-
men of Canada, as a rule, cannot stop their production of timber; they can scarcely cur-
tail it. Without meaning any disrespect to a class of hardworking, honourable men, I
think they may be considered (with the few exceptions above alluded to) as not being
jree agents.

" Their relations with the advancers of money, the banks, the brokers, the purchasers
in England, are of such a complicated nature, that it is difficult for them to realise at any
time what their financial position is. They know they are dependent upon others ; they
have been so from the beginning, and they continue so until, at last, after long years of
harassing, desperate work, with both body and mind worn out, they find themselves
poorer than when they began. The lumbermen have indicated the remedy for over-
production, but have not been able to apply it. Each one is ready to admit that he (or
rather his neighbor) is cutting tpo much timber, and that he would make more profit
with a less quantity.

APPENDIX. 41

'* It is bad enough that so much money should be wasted away in cutting down timber
for no good ; but if there were an inexhaustible supply of timber on the Crown lands, the
Government, receiving a larger amount of timber dues than it might otherwise, would not be
likely to interfere to protect the lumberman against himself. But our forests are getting
rapidly exhausted and their produce sacrificed, and it is a loss for Canada and for the
lumbermen.

'* Of course the first result of a decrease in the production of timber, in so far as the
Government is concerned, would be a corresponding decrease in the Crown lands receipts.
I won't call it the revenue, because there is something deceptive in the use of that word.
We are apt to fancy that it always means (as Worcester has it) the income or annual
profit received from lands or other property. It is nothing of the kind in this case. We
have not been spending the income or annual profits of our forests, but the forests,
themselves ; not the interest, but the capital,"

DR. ROBERT BELL'S REPORT.

The fact of the pine region of Canada being only Hmited is clearly shown
in the Geological Survey Report, 1880, by Dr. Robert Bell, Assistant
Director, in which he says respecting the white pine — " yellow pine " of the
British markets — Pinus strobus, L. : —

" This and the next species (red pine) have so nearly the same limit throughout the
greater part of the northward range, that they are represented on the map both by one line.
The red pine, however, does not extend so far east as the white, so that in this direction,
the line represents only the boundary of the latter. Contrary to popular belief, the white
pine is confined to a comparatively small part of the Dominion, as will be observed by an.,
inspection of the map. Its northern limit in Canada extends east as far as Mingan, while
to the west it does not reach Lake Winnipeg or Red River. It reaches its lowest latitude
opposite to Ottawa city, about 48^ ° , and its highest, about 52 <^ , in the Lonely Lake
region. It occurs in favorable situations throughout the greater part of Newfoundland, but
it is of best quality and most abundant along the Gander and export rivers on the north,
and the Humber on the west side of the island. When coming from Lake Mistassini to
Ottawa, by way of the Gatineau River, Mr. Richardson, of the Geological Survey, first met
this species ai 230 miles north of that city. It occurs of fair size on the head waters on all
the principal branches of the Moose River, and in former times is said to have extended
considerably further north along these streams. It is now very scarce in most of the regions
north of Lake Superior, but small groves of it have been observed as far north as represented.
It is scattered over the country between Lake Superior and the Winnipeg River and around
Lonely Lake, but it is of rather small size. In approaching Lake Winnipeg the limiting
line of this tree curves south-westward, and crosses the Winnipeg River about fifteen miles
above Fort Alexander, and then runs south to the United States at some distance east of
Red River. »

To show what little thought was given to the timber question, either in
the United States or Canada, previous to the appearance of the admirable
work prepared by Professor Sargent, in connection with the United States
Census, 1880, before mentioned, I may remark that no more authentic
information was then to be obtained respecting the forests of the United
States than is now to be had about those of Canada ; for on examination
of the United States Departmental publications for information, all I was
able to find was a re-translation into English from the French (with the
errors usually incidental in such cases) of a letter written by myself, eight
years previously, to a gentleman in London, not intended for publication,,
but which was published in 1874 in the London Timber Trade Journal.
(See Forestry Report, U. S., 1882, page 285 et seq.) From this letter I
make the following extracts : —

" Sir, — I find, when conversing with the timber merchants of Liverpool, Glasgow and
this city on the subject of timber, that the question of supply for a lengthened period is
one to which they have given but httle thought, and indeed this is not to be wondered at
when the people of the United States and Canada, who are more immediately concerned,
have I might say only now begun to reflect on the question, which was brought to their
notice in a communication, by the oldest lumberman in" Canada, at the National Board of

42 APPENDIX.

After pointing out the rapidity with which Americans were stripping the
forests, and the probability in the not distant future of having to look to
the north of Europe for supplies, owing to the cost of getting timber
from the Pacific, on account of the enormous annual consumption, which,
excluding fuel, was then (1874) considered to be equal to 30,000,000 loads
(18,000,000,000 superficial feet), an amount more than double all the sail-
mg tonnage of Europe and America combined, 1 continued : —

*'From the foregoing some idea may be formed of our position, in a few years, for an
article, to us so indispensable, considering the greater part of the country is prairie and
treeless. Indeed, the vast territory drained by the Mississippi, and comprising fully one-half
of the territory of the United States, has been, not inaptly, described as a huge farm with
a small grove of timber in its north-east corner.

*' The Eastern or New England States, comprising Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the Middle States of New York, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, were at one time dense
forests, and within a few years most of them had large tracts of the finest pine timber.
These States are to-day almost destitute of that wood, and indeed Maine alone excepted
may be said to have but little of any kind left ; and at the present time they are sawing
up all kinds of timber, and are compelled to purchase largely from Michigan and Canada
to supplement their almost exhausted stock,"

Then after referring to the forests of the Southern States possessing pitch
pine and cypress — both valuable woods — and containing but little white
pine, and since their stock was steadily undergoing depletion, both
for home consumption and export of these timbers and hardwoods, there
could have been but little to dispose of for any great length of time : —

'* To the west and north-west (J^the Rocky Mountains, there are Texas (Western), New
Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Eastern Montana, Illinois, Iowa,
most of Missouri, that part of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, and the southern part of
Wisconsin, all chiefly prairie and an almost treeless territory.

" On the Pacific side there are Washington and Oregon, which alone have timber to
spare, and which they are distributing to the south along the whole western coast of North
and South America. The remaining States of California and Nevada having only about
one-fifth part timber, or an amount hardly sufficient for their own requirements.

" As regards the Dominion of Canada, which is supposed by some to be one endless,
unbroken forest, it has (when we consider its great area) but a small proportion of forest
of any kind. British Columbia, on the Pacific side, which is at present beyond our reach,
may have timber to spare. Then there is the Saskatchewan Valley, with an extent of
country, principally prairie, large enough, it is said, to make thirteen States the size of the
State of New York. Next comes the Red River country and Manitoba, without timber to
any extent. Then the rocky, almost barren district north of Lakes Huron and Superior.
Here we reach the present Province of Ontario, formerly Canada West or Upper Canada.
This was truly a magnificent forest country, probably unsurpassed on the face of the globe
in the finest pine, oak, elm, ash, walnut, and whitewood ; but the most of this timber was
burnt off to clear the land for farms, or used for fuel, buildings and fences, and a large
amount of that remaining has been otherwise used up or exported ; so that to-day the oak,
ash, elm, walnut, and whitewood are about gone ; the oak, which now leaves Quebec, is
principally from Michigan or Ohio ; the walnut and whitewood you get from Indiana, Ohio,
or some Western State. This pine would have been burnt off, too, in the same way as
most of the other timber, but for the difficulty in clearing this land, owing to the number
■of trees and the greater amount of timber to be got rid of

" This Province of Ontario is at present using up a large amount of pine timber in its
-own internal improvements ; and, excepting, perhaps, that part of its pine bordering on the
Ottawa and its tributaries, it would be acting only prudently by retaining every remaining
stick for its own use.

"In the Province of Quebec, on the banks of the Ottawa and St. Maurice rivers and
their tributaries, lies nearly the whole wealth of white pine timber to spare in the Dominion
of Canada, east of the Rocky Mountains. ........

"The spruce district is confined chiefly to the Lower St. Lawrence, the St. Francis
district, or Eastern Townships, and the Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ;
and when it is seen these pine and spruce sections have been worked over for years, both

APPENDIX. 43

for "home consumption and export, many of them the greater part of a century, we need
not be sui-prised, when advised by those who profess to be well informed on the subject,
that the white pine yet remaining in the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick,
and Nova Scotia would not afford a full supply of timber to the United States alone for a
period of three years."

WILLIAM LITTLE.
London, March 30, 1874.

I insert an editorial article, adverting to the subject, from the latest issue
(May 28) of Garden and Forest (New York), a very valuable journal con-
ducted by Professor Charles S. Sargent, Harvard University, Special Agent,
United States Census, 1880, above mentioned, as corroborative of the views
I hold on this momentous question : —

" In a recent communication on the proposed changes in our tariff on lumber made to
the Canadian Journal of Connnerce, Mr. William Little, of Montreal, one of the best in-
formed lumber-men of America, discusses the present condition of the standing pine in the
States of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, once the chief source of the pine supply of
the United States, and reaches the conclusion that the great W^hite Pine-forests of this
country have vanished practically for all commercial purposes . He takes, as an illustration
of his position, the Pine-forests of the lower peninsula of Michigan, in which it was estimated
by the officers of the United States Census that there were standing in 1880 29,000,000,000
feet of merchantable White Pine. In 1889 the editor of the Chicago Timberman made an
investigation of the merchantable pine standing in the same region, and found only 3,000,
000,000 feet. Some of this was cut last winter, so that, if these figures are correct, there
is not now pine enough in the lower peninsula to supply the saw-mills of the State for more
than six months. It should be remembered, however, as Mr. Little points out, that there
are still left gleanings from third or fourth cut burnt-over stump-lands, which produce grades
of lumber of very inferior quality, some Red Pine and some inferior Hemlock, which may
keep the mills running for a short time.

" Mr, Little then assumes that it is fair to suppose that the Census estimates of pine
standing in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan were as nearly
correct as experience has shown those of the lower Michigan peninsula to have been, and,
taking the Census figures of 55,170,000,000, and deducting the amount which has been cut
during the last ten years, 37,451,341,338 feet — the figures recently prepared by the North-
westei'u Lu?nberma7i — he finds only about 20,000,000,000 feet standing in the three
States, from which must be deducted the cut of last winter, i-ather more than 8,000,000,000,
leaving a little over two years' supply of standing pine in the whole of the North- West.

" Correct estimates of standing timber are exceedingly difficult to make and to verify, but
by a system of averages extending over very large areas, comparatively accurate results can
be obtained, and it is not probable that the figures given above vary very far from the
truth. They are not needed, however, to prove that the time is at hand when the North-
Western States will cease to be great lumber producers. This is abundantly shown by the
fact that the most intelUgent lumbermen of that region have for several years been engaged
in securing great bodies of Pine-timber in the Southern States, and of Spruce and Redwood
on the Pacific coast. The increased number of destructive fires in saw-mills all through
the North- Western States, which have been noticed during the last two or three years, is
another infallible sign that their business is approaching the end.

" There is no hope that these great forests, which have been wasted as forests have never
been wasted before, will ever be reproduced. Their end finishes the prosperity of a large
section of the country, and marks a period of folly and extravagance which seems, as we
look back on it, simply incredible. And yet these forests, if they had not been called upon
to yield annually more than their natural yearly increase, and if they had not been wasted,
might have been productive forever, and insured permanent wealth and prosperity where
ruin now stares the community in the face. National calamities like the extermination of
our Pine-forests are slow in making themselves felt, and the closing of a saw mill and the
ruin and abandonment of a town have, at first perhaps, only local significance. In the end,
however, the country wakes up to the fact that a few men have made themselves enor-
mously rich, and that nothing is left but blackened stumps and barren soil to show where
once forests existed ; and that one of the principal sources of national wealth has gone

forever And yet for ten years the American people, fairly warned of what was

coming, have sat quietly by and looked with barely a word of protest against the extermina-
tion of the forests in every part of the country. "