The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1906-04-01
.W0RLD'S BIGGEST
LUMBER PLANT
How Americans Are Turning Ca
madam Forests Into Boards
and Newspapers.
ENOUGH TO PAPER THE 81 ODE
Mr.. Carpenter Visits Great Ca
madam Mill and Tells How
the Paper is Made.
BY Frank G. Carpenter.

OTTAWA, March 2G.--1magine yourself
seated In one Of Telephone Bells tctrnhc-
dral kites, flying over the biggest lum-
Der yard OF the world. l refer to the
immense forest area Of the Canadian do
inInion 1t begins OH the Atlantic and
ends at the Petite, stretching from east
to west for more than three thousand
miles Starting Mt Nova Scotia and New
brunswick; you look down on enough
Z big trees to cover the State Of Massachti-
sctts. There are lumber mills working,
and the proprietors or the London news
papers arc putting up pulp mills there
to supply the paper for the greatest read
Ing constituency of Europe Going west
ward we ny over the vast forest OF
Quebec, and into those Of Ontario from
where great part of our white pine
now comes. Here the forests extend
from the shores Of Lakes Superior and
Huron Northward to those OF Hudson
( Bay, and go on TO the west, almost TO
the setting sun. They take in tho Lake
Of the Woods region. and then switch
to the north and skirt the wheat belt,
until they lose themselves in the giant
woods OF the Rockies and the Pacific.
British Columbia has the same climate
and vegetation as Washington and Ore
4 gon, and its trees are surpassed BY none
IN the world. They are sometimes forty,
fifty, or sixty feet thick; a single los win
load a car, and one tree cut into boards
may make a train load. Timber, which
will square two or three feet and make 4
: log sixty feet long, Is spoken OF there as
a tooth pick. and such tooth picks are
exported all over the world. This British
Columbia timber belt is almost untouched.
II Is as wide as from New York TO Bos-
ton, and 1t runs north and south about far
n u n
red and yellow cedar, white and yellow
pine. red FIR. maple, and oak. 1t is one
OF the most valuable pieces OF woods
left on the North American continent.
The Woods Above the Lakes.
Flying back TO the east let us look for
moment at the woods beyond the
Great Lakes. Above Lakes Superior and
Huron is an extension OF the forests we
had In Wisconsin and Michigan. Fully
onc-thirl of the trees are more than
one hundred years old. and many have
seen several centuries. They consist OF
white pine. birch and maple and other
hard wood, with strip OF spruce at the
north vast enough to make the wood pulp
for the newspapers OF generations to
come, These woods are furnishing
large part OF the white Zine of the United Z
States. Four million pine logs are hoated
down every yc%s to this city OF OttoWa,
and other millions go to the Great Lakes
and across to the United States. We
charge duties Of 81 a thousand on all such
4 lumber bur 1t comes in by the shlp-load.
American Lumbermen in Canada
Americans already own big share OF
the lumber business here. and they are
rapidly acquiring more. Many OF the
lumber camps are managed by our neo-
bic. Connecticut axes cut down the for
tgts, and mills equipped with american
machinery are saving the logs into boards
for American houses.
have met many OF our lumbermen 1
here and have chattcd with them about
the business. One of the best posted IS
B. ". Arnold. who is largely associated
with General Russell "A. q ger N pine
lands in Minnesota, and who has also
large interests in British Columbia and
Canada. He has saw-mills along the
Great Lakes, nnI ships pine and other
lumber to the United States In my
chat I asked him about the wood which
we are now getting from Canada lie
replied:
lumber from here. 1t gets considerable
pine, red birsch. basam and spruce, but
the most important Of all is pine. Near
~ all the white pine used east OF tho
Ohio comes over tho international boun-
dairy, and We also ship pine to the Test
Central States. The most Of the A'neri-
can pine has been cut off, We have
some such forests left In Minnesota
but there is comparatively little In
Maine. Michigan or Wisconsin"
Canadian Pine.
"IIow does the Canadian pine COM
pare with ours?"
ct Is not so good" replied Mr.. Ar
mold. E"What we are now cutting would
have been cnsscd as third grade lum-
Der In the Michigan forests q few years
ago. Indeed, I doubt II moro than 10
per cent of what Canada is selling is
l,p to the average pine that we sold
twenty years ago. Tho best 10 per
cent. comes from trees which are about
three hundred years old, tho next grade
is from trees n hundred and fifty years
old. and tho lower grades are younger
and smaller. We are now cutting pines
which give us fourteen or sixteen-lnch
boards and some which give less. The
logs are cut In slxteen-foot lengths.
lis there much demand for white
pine" ",
Eyes. It is the aristocrat OF the soft
woods, and is In great demand, notwith-
standing the high prices. We arc now
getting $2S thousand for It at whole
sale In New York, White pine was for