ing on the unsold lands on the north shore of Lake Superior might be sold at the rate of fifty cents per acre in addition to the price of one dollar per acre for the lands. Application must be made within six months, and payment made. If the owners of lands should neglect to apply for the pine trees within that time, they might be sold to others; but in case two or more applicants should seek to purchase the same timber, the sale was to be made to the one who would pay the most above the fifty cents, as above provided. This order was suspended on the 20th of May, pending an examination of particular portions of the Lake Superior Mining Region, and this suspension has not since been removed.

As to the policy that governed this action the following statement is made:

It is to be remarked that the above order of 1872 was passed on the supposition, mainly correct, that the pine was inferior in quality, and only to be found in rare and scattered patches in the mining territory in question, and therefore unfit to be treated as timber limits, in the general meaning of the term as understood in the Crown Lands Regulations, and that the withdrawal of the reservation for fifty cents per acre additional to the price of the land would allow the pine, such as it was, to be manufactured for the use of settlers and for mining purposes.

The additional payment, up to the suspension of the Order in Council, was made on 8,006 acres, realizing $4,003, when it was found that some large groups of valuable pine were on the eastern portion of the territory covered by the Order in Council, whereupon the latter was suspended until exploration has been made of the area referred to, which step has not yet taken place.

The mining act of 1859, as regards timber, was passed with the view of reserving the pine to the Crown, the latter kind of timber only being at the time considered of commercial value.1

[16.] Recent increase in Value of other Timber besides Pine.

But in other parts of the Province than that on Lake Superior, since the permeation of Ontario by railways, and the extension and reconstruction of the same in the neighboring and even remote sections of the United States, cedar (and other timber) for ties has so increased in value as to be, in many localities, worth as much as pine. In consequence, considerable trouble has arisen from the fact that numbers of persons have purchased, under the mining act, lands within timber limits, the lots so purchased having no pine upon them, but of great value for other timber, as above mentioned; the licensees who have paid ground rent for many years on the land so taken up, when the timber on them was of no commercial importance, naturally object to others now acquiring the timber which the mining act allows them to cut and dispose of in the process of actual or pretended clearing for cultivation, or for mining purposes, since they, the licensees, now find that the timber in question is equal iù value, if not more valuable than the pine reserved to them by the 12th section of the act, which section is endorsed on all mining patents; in this connection the Department, in justice to license holders, has lately found it necessary to have inquiry made as to the character of the lands for which application has been made 10 purchase, and if sold, for application for patent, and to refuse to sell or issue patent if it is ascertained that the lands are largely cedar swamps, as is frequently the case, wholly destitute of minerals and unfit for farming purposes, but valuable only for the cedar or other timber.

[17.] Timber Agencies.

There are at present three Timber Agencies in this Province, known as the "Ottawa Agency," the "Belleville Agency," and the "Western Timber District," and the statistics, of which the summary is given in the foregoing tables, are reported separately for each. The Crown Timber Office, at Ottawa, acts for the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec, and also for the Dominion Government in the collection of slide-dues. A similar remark applies to the collector's office at Quebec.

1 Although not so specified in the Order in Council, it appears from the form prepared in conveying titles, that the region to which this regulation applied was that part north of Lake Superior and west of the eighty-fourth meridian of west longitude.

[18.] Foreign Timber Trade.

The statistics of exportation given in previous pages of this Report, show that, with the exception of a very small fraction of one per cent., the whole of the foreign exportation of forest products from this Province has been to the United States. From the years 1869 to 1876, inclusive, the United States received the whole thus exported; in 1877 and 1878 the proportion was 99.9 per cent., and in 1879 it was 99.8 per cent. This result, due chiefly to the inland location of the Province, and the inducements of trade along a well settled frontier of immense extent, having many populous cities along the boundary, and numerous routes of transportation leading inland to American markets, is, perhaps, the natural effect of these circumstances. It has evidently been brought about without the slightest forethought, as a matter of policy, further than the pecuniary interests of those concerned may have operated, and wholly without concert, beyond such as might have reference to an influence upon prices.

In view of the benefits to be derived from the manufacture of lumber within the Province into the forms desired for use, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, in 1877, in a communication to the then Premier of Quebec, already mentioned, said:

This Department has long been deeply impressed with the fact that timber, especially pine, should not be exported from the country in the "log" or "stick," but should, as far as practicable, be manufactured at our saw-mills, and furnished to customers abroad in such shape and dimensions as they might require, by which a large quantity of valuable timber, now wasted in getting out square pine, would be saved and added to the national wealth of the country, not to speak of the increased labor employed at the saw-mills in the production of the prepared article of lumber, and the money in consequence retained and spent in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, which may be said to be the only exporters in the Dominion of square pine. With the object of being in a position to convince licensees who manufacture pine in the " log" or "stick" for export, that it would be to their individual, as well as the public, interest to abandon the trade, an officer of this Department was authorized, when lately in Britain, to visit the principal ports where pine, in the shape referred to, is imported, and to make investigation and inquiry on the spot as to the feasibility of the introduction of the article into that country in a manufactured state, instead of in the stick or log, and thereby be enabled to place the matter in such a light before parties engaged in the square-pine trade that they would see the propriety of building saw-mills adapted for cutting log or specification stuff, as well as the usual stock lumber, for the United States market, or of taking out saw-logs from their limits and selling them to those who have such mills, or selling permission to mill-owners to cut upon their limits; the result of the inquiry, however, has not been such as to warrant the taking immediate steps in the desired direction, nor would it be practicable for Ontario to inaugurate a policy on the subject without the co-operation of the Province of Quebec, the joint action of both provinces probably requiring aid by legislation in the Dominion Parliament with respect to export duty.

Again recurring to this subject, the Commissioner, in his Report for 1879, after speaking of an encouraging revival in the lumber business during the year, following a long period of depression, says:

With reference to sawn lumber, I would call the attention of Canadian mill-owners to a transaction which, in my opinion, should be both interesting and suggestive to them, inasmuch as it points to the opening up of a new outlet for the product of their mills, and at the same time an escape from the duty of $2 per thousand feet, which meets them on shipments to the United States, and renders it almost, if not altogether, impossible for them to compete with lumber from Michigan, especially when prices in the foreign market are low. I allude to the fact that a shipment of inch-and-a-quarter sawn lumber was lately made direct from the mills at Ottawa, via the Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental and North Shore Railways to Quebec, to be laden aboard a vessel for Glasgow. The transaction referred to, so far as the dealers in Ottawa are concerned, was not one of speculation, but an outright purchase at the lumber yards by the shippers. The prices realized on delivery at the yards at Ottawa were as follows: one inch "shipping culls," $6 to $8 per M.; "log-run sidings," one inch, $9

per M.; a lot of one inch and one-and-a-quarter stuff (not classed) from $8.50 to $15 per M.; the total forwarded to Quebec being 451,407 feet, board measure; the vessel having a carrying capacity of 480,000 feet board measure-that is, equal to 800 loads of fifty cubic feet, or 1,000 tons of forty cubic feet of square measure. The rate of freight across the Atlantic has not been ascertained, nor the rate by rail from Ottawa to Quebec. The former is generally arranged by charter party in Britain, and is fluctuating; the rate by rail is understood to have been very favorable to the shippers; but as the two railway lines mentioned are expected soon to be amalgamated, and the shipment being one of a new and unusual character, which in the near future may assume large proportions, there was a reluctance to disclose the terms of transport. Hitherto the produce of Canadian saw-mills shipped to Europe has been in the shape of deals only, for the manufacture of which none but the very best of pine is brought into requisition, as the article is used on the other side of the Atlantic for fine finishing in buildings, for which purpose the deals are cut up at saw-mills into various thicknesses and dimensions after they reach the old country. The class of timber used in Canada for the manufacture of deals is not to be found in Europe, and can meet with no competition in transatlantic ports, except from the United States, notably by deals from Michigan. The Baltic ports supply no pine of a texture fine enough for the uses to which American pine is applied. Under the circumstances the shipment of inch lumber from Ottawa to Glasgow direct has an important significance, and it is hoped it may lead to such a change in the wood trade between this country and Europe as will not only result in profit to those engaged in it, but at the same time enhance the value of the pine forests in the lumber-producing provinces of the Dominion, to which reference is made farther on in connection with the squaretimber trade.

The penetration of railways into the remote part of the country, as it proceeds, will mark a revolutionary era in the timber trade. Already, where timber limits worked upon are remote, the project has been entertained at Ottawa of moving their mills from where they are now situated in the vicinity of the city to localities nearer to the source of timber supply-a step which would do away with the tedious and expensive process of bringing the saw-logs by water to the chaudière, an operation which, owing to the falling off of the volume of water in the streams, in many cases extends into the second year, and sometimes even to the third year after they have been cut in the woods, before they reach the point of manufacture, during which time the owner of the logs not only suffers the loss of interest on the capital invested in the timber so delayed, but he also frequently sustains great loss of valuable timber in the course of transit.

The Canada Central Railway has already brought lumber from the mills at Pembroke, which before the advent of that road would have been limited to the uncertainty of a local market, or otherwise the logs from which the lumber was produced subjected to the delay and expense of being taken to the saw-mills at Ottawa, or even farther down the river, as price or demand for the timber might render necessary or advisable.

When the Canada Central Railway reaches the vicinity of Lake Nipissing, and the proposed Ontario Pacific junction from Gravenhurst has been built, saw-mills will, no doubt, be erected on the lake, at which timber, now locked up for the want of means of taking in supplies and the absence of a practicable outlet, will be manufactured into sawn lumber, and speedily transported by either of the lines to points from which it can be shipped to Canadian or foreign markets. The only outlet at present for the extensive region referred to, is by River Wahanapitae and French River, the former entering the latter at a short distance above where it empties into the Georgian Bay. No timber has been brought from the upper waters of the Wahanapitae, and the only venture of taking timber down French River was last winter, when some square pine was brought from South Bay, then rafted to Wauhashene and taken from thence by the Midland Railway to Port Hope, and finally by water to Quebec. The same party who brought down the square timber last year, it is understood, has entered into a contract with the Maganetawan Lumber Company to cut at South Bay, Lake Nipissing, a large quantity of saw-logs to be taken down French River, and delivered in spring at Byng Inlet, to be there manufactured into lumber.

[19.] Timber on private lands.

The statistics reported with respect to the Woods and Forests of Ontario, by the Commissioner of Crown Lands, are not to be received as a statement of the total production of the Province. These reports show only the quantities upon which dues have been collected during the year, no record being kept of the amount of timber cut on private lands

or on unlicensed lands sold or located, unless cut on the latter in tres pass.

In 1872 circulars were sent by the Department to all known saw-mill owners in the Province asking for returns of the quantities of lumber sawn at their mills in the years 1866 to 1871 inclusive. According to returns received, the sawn lumber produced in 1871 was 531,000,000 of feet, board measure, to which is to be added for square timber from Ontario, say 100,000,000 feet, making a total of 631,000,000 feet, board measure. The estimated production of 1872, including square pine, was 750,000,000 feet, board measure. Since then the production, at least of sawn lumber, has fallen off. In all cases, as regards the latter, it is calculated that 85 to 873 per cent. is exported, the rest being consumed in the country.*

[20.] Re-stocking with Trees.

Upon this subject the Commissioner of Crown Lands, writing in 1877, says:

With regard to restocking lands in this Province which have become denuded of trees, it may be broadly stated that there is no part of Ontario in a condition requiring the replanting of trees to replace those removed, either in the process of clearing for farming purposes or in the course of lumbering operations. Even in the section of the country south and west of a line drawn directly west from the city of Hamilton, at the head of Lake Ontario, to the shore of Lake Huron, formerly known as the "Peninsula of Canada West," and the district around the Bay of Quinté, east of Toronto, the earliest settled localities in the province, the lands have not been denuded of timber growth, a prudent foresight having dictated to the settlers the necessity and advantage of leaving a portion of their farms covered by the forest trees for future use in the many ways in which they can be utilized.

The only replanting found necessary so far is in the "Peninsula of Canada West," and that only to a limited extent, where large fields on farms on high level ground are subject to have the snow drifted off them by the strong winds in winter, and the fallsown wheat thereby exposed to damage by frost. In such cases farmers have been in the habit, for some years past, of planting out around their fields young pines, cedars, etc., for the purpose of retaining the snow, and the department has placed guardians over localities where such young growths are abundant, so that the supply may be maintained and furnished at such nominal charge as will cover expense of protecting the young trees for the purpose mentioned.

The practice of planting for shelter will doubtless be continued where required, not only in the locality referred to, but in other parts of the country, as the forest trees are removed, so that in process of time fields will be surrounded and farms interspersed by a new arborial growth such as is to be seen in Britain and on the continent of Europe.

The greater portion of Ontario may be characterized as primeval forest, which preserves the rivers at their sources, and maintains during their course the full volume of water supplied to them in spring by the melting of the winter snow and tributary streams, and are kept in full flow with few exceptions by the summer and autumn rains.

Application was made three years ago to Professor Kingston, of the Observatory in Toronto, for information as to rainfall, and any observations which might have been made in his Department as to climatic change consequent on cutting down forest trees in the process of clearing land for cultivation or for merchantable purposes, but it was found that no data was on record on which to base observations on the subject. Professor Kingston stated that observations as to rain and snow fall at Toronto had been recorded for thirty-three years, but he adds: "To give a satisfactory reply we should possess at several representative points, not remote from the regions where

*In an article published in the Toronto Mail purporting to give the exportation from the Province of Ontario to the United States during the year ending September 30, 1876, the amount is given as 2,409,000,000 feet and the value as $2,652,000. It was afterwards admitted by the author of this article that a blunder had been committed. It is evident that the amount is greatly exaggerated, and the statement is here noticed simply to guard any one from being misled by it. Assuming the lumber to be worth $10 per 1.000 feet, the sum mentioned would represent 265,000,000 feet- a reasonable approximation to the truth-instead of 2,409,000,000, as stated.

great changes have occurred in the extent of forests, records of rainfall before, during, and after the progressive removal of the forests, which unfortunately do not exist. Toronto being on the border of a great lake, remote from forest districts, is decidedly exceptional. At any rate, observations at only one place cannot be regarded as adequate to the solution of the question.

It is known of course that on the continent of Europe where the forests are in the hands of government (as they are in Ontario), the cutting down of trees on the Crown domain is rigidly regulated and restricted, and a system of yearly replanting closely adhered to; and that the same practice is also followed in Britain, where the forests are principally in the hands of private individuals; but in those countries the population may be said to be at a maximum, and is maintained at that point by natural increase only, and no intrenchment on the forest lands necessary, whereas the Canadian Provinces have in addition to such increase a vast yearly influx of immigration pressing into the lands of the Crown, before which the forests must in the mean time yield, whatever steps may be deemed necessary to restore them in the somewhat remote future.

2 Receipts considered as revenue.

The statistics of this and the following tables, it will be remembered, include only the returns from the Crown lands. There are other extensive lumbering operations upon private lands, of which no return is made, and no estimates can be procured further than as stated on a preceding page. This fact should be borne in mind in order to prevent misunderstanding of the value of the tables in this report relating to timber and lumber from the public lands.

[2.] Area of Lands under Timber License in the Province of Ontario.