Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-31

| u.
| Special Correspondence of The Star
OTTAWA
Imagine yourself seated in one of Tele-
| phone Bells tetrahedral kites, flying over
the biggest lumber yard of the world,
| refer to the immense forest area of the
Canadian dominion. 1t begins on the At
| lantic and ends at the Pacific stratchinp
from east to west for more than three
| thousand miles Starting in Nova Scotia and
! New Brunswick. you look down on enough
| big trees to cover the state of Massachu-
| sets. mere are lumber mills working and
| the proprietors of the London neWspapers
are putting up pulp mills there to supply
the paper for the greatest reading con-
| sutuency of Europe Going westward We
! ny over the vast forests 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 the 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
ana vegetation Washington and Ore
| gon, and its trees are surpassed by none in
| the world. They are sometimes forty
! hfty, or sixty feet thick; a single log will
| load car, and one tree cut into hoa rds
| may make train load Timber which
| Will square two three feet and make q
| log sixty feet long, is spoken of there as n
tooth pick, and such tooth picks are ex-
| ported all over the world This British Co
Iumbla timber belt Is almost untouched
| 1t IS as wide as from New York to BOSTON.
ana IT runs north and south about as ia i,
as from Philadelphia to Detroit. 1t has red
ana gelioW cedar, white and yellow nine
| red mr., maple, and oak. 1t is one of the
most valuable pieces of woods left on tbe
North American continent
The Woods Above the Lakes.
frying 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 one-third
| OF the trees are more than one hundred
years old, and many have seen several
| centuries. They consist of white pine
| prch and maple and other hard woods
| with strip of spruce at the north yast
| enough to make the wood pulp for the
| newspapers of generations to come Tl,.sa
woods are furnishing large part of the
| wnlte pine of the United States Fours
million pine logs are ffoated down every
year to this city of Ottawa and Other
millions go to the Great Lakes and across
/ 10 the United States. We charge dutiac
Of 81 a thousand on all such lumber bl,t
| 1t comes In by the ship load
American Lumbermen in Canada.
Americans already own a big share or
the lumber business here, and thew are
| rapidly acquiring more. Many of the lum-
Der camps are managed by our people
Connecticut axes cut down the forests
and mills, equipped with American ma
chinery, are saving the logs into boards
| for American houses.
i have met many of our lumbermen here
! uyifh
business One of the best posted Is r w
Arnold, who is largely associated with Cen
erai Russell A. Alger in pine lands in
Minnesota, and who has also large inter
ests in British Columbia and Canada. He
has saw mills along the Great Lakes. and
ships pine and other lumber to the United
States. In my chat l asked him about the
wood which we are getting from Cam
ada He replied
1.-The United States imports all sorts of
Lumber from here. 1t gets consider
but the most important of all is pine Near
ly all the white pine used east of the Ohio
comes over the international boundary and
we also ship pine to the west central states
The most of the American 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.
How does the Canadian pine compare
with ours?'
1T is not so good replied Mr. Arnold
What we are now cutting would have been
eIassed as third grade lumber in the Micbi
gan forests few years ago Indeed.
doubt If more than 10 per cent of what
Canada is selling is up to the average pine
that we sold twenty years ago. The best
10 per cent comes from trees which are
about three hundred years old. the next
grade Is from trees hundred and fifty
years old, and the lower grades are young
err and smaller. We are now cutting mines
which give up fourteen or sixteen-inch
boards and some which give less The logs
are cut in sixteen-foot lengths
rs there much demand for white pine?"
Yes, it is the aristocrat of the soft woods
and it is in great demand Notwithstanding
the high prices. We are now getting S2s
thousand for 1t at wholesale in New York.
White pine was formerly used for every
thing Our carpenters and builders have
been working with 1t since the beginning
ours tools are made for 1t, and for years
our houses have been built of it. There
fore, every one wants It. 1t is especially
valuable for shipping boxes. 1t is so clean
and white that the stencils show plainly
upon It,. making the box good advertise
nient for the shipper.
How is the timber gotten out In Cam
ada?''
Much Of 1t Is cut In the woods in the