File:Canadian forest industries 1882 (1882) (20497054516).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries 1882
Identifier: canadianforest1882donm (find matches)
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
'
Text Appearing After Image:
PUBLISHED ) SEMI-MONTHLY, f The only Newspaper devoted to the Lumber and Timber Industries published in Canada. VOL. 2. PETERBOROUGH, ONT., NOVEMBER 1, 1882. NO. 21. TIMBER CLAIMS.SPECULATION. A writer in the New York Tribune who has been up through Dakota by way of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba railroad, tells of some things which he learned about the "tree claim," business in that section. Claims to government land may be secured under the homestead act, pre-emption law, and the timber culture act—a quarter section under each. He says that the latter, the "tree claims," are the most sought after, and that they are taken for thirty or forty miles on each side of that rail- road and sixty to seventy miles beyond its pre- sent terminus. But they are taken mostly for speculative purposes. In all the route he did not see but a few tree plantings, and they were very much neglected. The number of tree claims is limited by the law, but every one, so far as he could learn, had been taken, the rea- sons being that persons are not required to live temporarily or otherwise on the claim, and they are not obliged to do anything the first year. They " enter " their claim, and as soon as en- tered, offer their right for sale, asking a thous- and or fifteen hundred dollars or more for it, according to location. They sell many of them to actual settlers, who are pouring in by thous- ands, and buying up claims wherever they can. The party who "enters " the claim does so for purposes of speculation only. The purchaser from him may, under the law, and does in near- ly every instance, convert his "treeclaim " into a pre-emption claim. Thus the tree-culture law becomes a dead-letter and means of speculation to those who never dreamed of perfecting title under the act or complying with its provisions. The Timber Culture Act was passed with the very best motives, to encourage forest growing in those barren regions ; but it seems, according to nearly all accounts, to be practically a fail- ure for the purpose intended. It sadly needs amendment.—Lumberman's Qazette. residences causes a great demand for lumber which only those who visit the outlying portions of the city can form anything like an accurate approximation of. The crowded state of this branch of business has no doubt been aggra- vated by the long blockades caused by the snows and still later by the floods of last spring. The supply from the south may be said to have been practically suspended for two months, and building operations during that interval were at a stand still. Making full allowance, however, for the exceptional circumstances of last spring the lumber trade is in an extra healthy state, with a heavy demand which will in all proba bility be a long lasting one. The local supply of logs has filled but a small proportion of this season's demand, and heavy importations have had to be made from the United States, while in cut lumber the supply from the same locality has bean equally heavy. At present the booms on the river are so crowd- ed with logs that large quantities have to be hauled up upon the bank. Seldom have our mills had such a supply ahead, and it is being steadily added to while navigation remains open. We may expect therefore that these mills will have a late run this fall, and that their producing capacity will be tested to its fullest extent till very near the close of the pre- sent year. We find also that the arrangements at the different logging camps for the coming winter are on an extensive scale, and will furn- ish for next summer the largest supply of logs ever brought out in the North-West.—Winnipeg Commercial. WINNIPEG LUMBER DEMAND. From the whir of machinery now to be heard along the river bank in this city, a person un- acquainted with the state of business in Win- nipeg would conclude that the supply of lumber turned out ought to meet any reasonable de- mand, even in a new and growing country like this. Inquiry into the matter, however, reveals a very different state of affairs. A Commercial representative has made some investigations of the facts, and he finds that our lumber dealers and manufacturers are hard pushed to supply the demand in the city alone, while orders from the surrounding towns have to be left almost un- attended to. The extraordinary amount of building now going on in the city and the quantity of lumber required therefore cannot be comprehended after a superficial survey of the principal buildings now constructing. The suburban proportion of the work although made up principally of smaller business buildings and TRAFFIC IN TAN-BARK. A steamboat fitted up with machinery for grinding and compressing tan-bark has recently been built in Cincinnati. It is supplied with three engines, one for propulsion, one for grind- ing and elevating the tan-bark, and one for compressing it into bales for shipment. For- ward, on what may be termed the forecastle, are located three hoppers, in which are the grinders, and after the bark has been ground it passes into a trough, where a spiral elevator takes it up and conveys it to the extreme high- est point of the boat, where it is emptied into other hoppers, and thence conveyed to the var- ious compressors. The machinery is ponderous but simple. When the bark is in shape for shipment or storage it is on the upper deck, lying on the floor. On either side of the com- pressors is an elevator, similar to those in com- mon use in buildings, and on these the bark is conveyed, in its compressed form, to the hold of the boat, where it is stored. No barrel, bale, tie or other covering is needed to preserve it, as it is a compact mass, after undergoing the above process, almost as hard as rock, but will dissolve upon the application of water. Before being ground and compressed it is thoroughly dried, so that when ready for market there is not a article of moisture in it. Already the Ameri- can Compressed Tan-bark Company owns 2,000 tons of bark corded on the banks of the Ten- nessee river, which was purchased from the owner by weight. Should the supply upon that stream become exhausted, there are many others which are lined by chestnut, oak, and hemlock ; nota- bly, the Arkansas river, where for a distance of 400 miles no timber has been cut. Should the present boat prove successful, others of a similar kind will be built to operate in diffierent streams and different sections. In America, or at least in this section of America, the price of loose tan-bark ranges from $10 to $15 per ton. Eu- rope is generally supplied from France and Germany at $30 to $35 per ton. It is probable that for awhile most of that compressed on the boat just built will goto Europe, but after awhile it may be compressed in such quantities that much of it will be used at home.— Northwestern Lumberman. THE NEEDS OF FORESTRY. At the recent Forestry Congress at Montreal the following paper on "The needs of Forestry" was read by Mr. E. Gillivray, of Ottawa :— Sir,—I have been requested by circular to prepare a paper on Forestry, and in attempting to do so I do not feel myself adequate to the task, with the great importance of wood to the present and future generations and the rapid decrease of our forests on this continent, which, from the first settlement of the country, it was found necessary to destroy for the purpose of making way for the agriculturalist. This art is the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization which is said employs seven-eighths of every civilized nation, and without this art mankind would be savages thinly settled through intermediate forests, and now except in new settlements the total destruction of our forests are unnecessary, and absolutely useful in many respects both for man and beast. The Germans were the first, as far as I have been able to ascertain, to treat scientifically the management of forests and establish forest ran- gers and academies in which all branches re- lating to them were taught, and those institu- tions originated from the increasing scarcity year after year of the woods of that locality. The Prussian Government also soon discover- ed that their forests were decreasing, and directed their attention to the forests of that country, so that at the present time no one is appointed in the forest department without go- ing under a regular course of examination in all branches connected with the forests, and to serve personally in the forests for a certain length of time. The English forest laws have had only reference to the game laws of that country. The French also paid some attention to their forests, and enacted a code of laws for the pro. tection of the forests of France, but I have not been able to ascertain what they were. And it would be well if the people of this Continent were to learn a lesson from those countries and educate its inhabitants to the preservation of our forests and study the ques- tion thoroughly, and establish forest academies and appoint men understanding the subject, and treat it scientifically. They should also have power from the government to prevent the spreading of fires, and punishing those who have been the means of starting or causing the spreading of bush fires and destroying immense forests annually, for it has been said by many of our leading lumbermen in this country that there is more valuable forest destroyed by fire every year than what is cut away for manufac- turing purposes. I well recollect the great fire of Miramichi in 1828, the destruction of property on that occas- ion ; also in 1854, when the whole of the Up- per Ottawa was on fire from carelessness in setting bush land on fire, which, it being a dry season, spread throughout the Upper Ottawa with frightful rapidity ; also, in 1870 when the whole of the Ottawa Valley was in flames, cov- ering in its ravages several counties in Ontario and Quebec that it was thought even by some that some fearful calamity was to happen, and only by extensive rain it was conquered. I have read lately in some of the American journals that at the present rate of cutting tim- ber in twelve years the country would be stripped of all its pine forests. Although Can- ada is manufacturing a large quantity of pine every year, it will take yet many years before the country is stripped of its pine forests ; it is not only that we should be careful of our for- ests, but that new forests be created by trans- planting. I am not prepared to say whick are the most successful trees that ought to be trans- planted, as they are too numerous to mention, for each locality has its own peculiar climate, and each may not suit to be transplanted indis- criminately. Thus if we had academies of forestry there they would be made a study and would then follow the recommendations of those professors, especially to those who never made it a study to transplant. We see every day by our own experience the necessity of transplant- ing trees along the highways, farms and the streets of your towns and cities ; it has always been recommended that trees should be trans- planted as near as possible like the soil which they are taken from and more likely to succeed, and to place them north and south as they orig- inally stood, and likewise not to take them from too dense a forest, for they are less likely to stand the two extremes of cold and heat. Sawmills were first used in Europe in the fifteenth century. Before that a mau who swore he lost his leg in the army was generally be. lieved,— Exchange,

Note About Images