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Notwithstanding the
extent to which lumbering has been carried on,, the supply of spruce
will last for an indefinite period under the conservative methods of
cutting, as the spruce is a tree of rapid growth and will attain
merchantable proportions in thirty years. On the public lands no
tree is permitted to be cut that will not make a log of ten inches
diameter at the top, eighteen feet up, although many private owners
allow the cutting of small spruce for pulpwood.
Many of the large
limit holders follow a system of rotation. The land is laid off in
strips of one and one-quarter or one and one-half miles wide and
from five to ten miles in length. One strip is cut over each year
and all the merchantable trees taken: The next year the adjoining
strip is worked, and so on until the larger of the young growth of
the first strip is available. The tracts nearest the great rivers
have been most thoroughly worked and each year the operations are
more distant from the point of shipment.
The portable or
small rotary mill is much used on small tracts of private land, and
the annual product is considerable in the aggregate, but does not
figure in the provincial returns. While the large mills are most
numerous near the river mouth, still there are many scattered
through the interior with facilities for shipping their product by
rail or floating it down the rivers to the coast. .
While spruce is the
great article of export there is a large cut of cedar for shingles
for the United States and local markets. A good deal pf hemlock is
also sent to the United States as boards and there is a growing
trade with Britain in birch for spool wood. The pulp industry is
undergoing a great development and new sources of supply, tapped by
railways in districts from which the large timber has been taken,
provide raw material for the pulp mills.
THE ST. JOHN
DISTRICT.
St. John is the
center of the lumber manufacturing and shipping trade. As the River
St. John is over four hundred and fifty miles in length and has
numerous tributaries, it drains an immense territory not only in New
Brunswick but in the adjoining State of Maine and in the Province of
Quebec, so that a large portion of the logs manufactured in the St.
John mills come from outside the Province. The manufacturers as a
rule do not operate in the woods, but contract at so much a thousand
feet for the cutting, rafting and driving of the logs to their
mills. There are three log driving companies—the Madawaska, St. John
River and Fredricton boom companies and also a company on the
Tobique, the chief tributary of the St. John in New Brunswick.
Driving is always an uncertain feature, as the Grand Falls, 225
miles from the mouth of the St. John, have a descent of seventy-four
feet, below which is a narrow and deep gorge through which logs must
pass. Logs are often hung up for the season or damaged by a jam in
the gorge.
The leading
shippers from St. John are W. M. Mackay, who ex* ports about one
hundred million feet annually, George McKean and the A. Gibson
Railway & Manufacturing Company. W. Alexander Gibson* of the latter
company, has been engaged in the lumber trade for about a half
century. He commenced life as a poor boy and advanced step by step
until he became manager of the finest mill in the Province. About
1864 he acquired the lumbering establishment of Rankine, Ferguson &
Co. on the Nashwaak River about two miles from Fredricton and
undertook a series of improvements, establishing a number of other
industries such as cotton mills, tanneries, etc. The village erected
by these activities is called Marysville. He subsequently extended
his lumbering operations to the Miramichi district and built the
Northwestern railway, opening up large tracts of timber lands in
that region.
In 1871 the firm of
Randolph & Baker erected a large mill two miles from the mouth of
the St. John, which mill is one of the best sawing dimension lumber
for the British market. The firm’s plant has an annual capacity of
twenty million feet of long lumber, and it also ships quantities of
lath to the United States.
Frederick Moore, of
Woodstock, New Brunswick, was bom in Canterbury, York County, New
Brunswick, in 1839. Between the years 1862 and 1884 he was one of
the heaviest operators in Aroostook County, Maine, cutting from
5,000,000 to 15,000,000 feet of spruce annually for the St. John,
New Brunswick, market. In 1884 he built a sawmill, with a planing
mill, on the Maduxnakeag River, a branch of the St. John River, for
cutting logs from the Aroostook region. He occupies a prominent
position in the New Brunswick trade.
In 1904 a total of
183 vessels cleared from St. John with lumber, a slight increase
over the 171 lumber clearances in 1903. In 1904 cargoes embraced
463,585 tons, or 172,995,507 superficial feet, while the cargoes of
1903 included 411,546 tons, or 174,360,562 superficial feet. The
shipments were to Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and
ports in Spain, Australia and other countries. In 1904 the shipments
of birch were 3,567 tons, compared with 4,498 tons in 1903. Pine
timber shipments were fifteen tons, a marked decrease from the
forty-eight tons shipped in 1903. Shipments from the thirteen other
ports in New Brunswick in 1904 brought the total amount of deals and
other lumber shipped from the Province up to 641,711 tons, or
358,851,893 superficial feet.
St. John’s export
trade in forest products is larger than that of any other port in
Canada, except Montreal, amounting in value during the fiscal year
1903 to $4,298,308, including the following items : Pine deals,
$10,801; spruce and other deals, $2,496,467; planks and boards,
$624,943; shingles, $339,699.
THE MIRAMICHI
DISTRICT.
The Miramichi
district has witnessed changes similar to those which have
characterized the development of the industry in the region
tributary to the St. John. It had formerly' its pine timber and
lumber period and extensive shipbuilding operations. The trade of
the present day is mainly in spruce deals, with some business in
spool wood and a growing demand for pulpwood. There are two branches
of the Miramichi, which unite about twenty miles from the bay into
which it flows and have a tributary area of many thousand square
miles. The streams extend far westward toward Maine. The great bulk
of the cut is spruce, only about five percent being pine, with some
hardwood, cedar and hemlock. Practically all timber lands tributary
to the Miramichi and Crown lands are owned by the New Brunswick
Railway Company. Under the regulations in force for cutting there is
a chance for the spruce to reproduce itself and, while the average
size of logs shows a decrease, there is no absolute clearing of the
forest. The more desirable tracts are becoming less accessible
yearly. The railway company looks carefully after its timber
interests and has a staff of scalers and foresters, charging a rate
of $1.50 per 1,000 feet to operators.
The log cut on the
Miramichi for the season of 1902-3 was 125,000,000 feet, as compared
with 123,000,000 feet for the previous season. Miramichi ranks next
to St. John among the lumber shipping ports of the Province, the
trans-Atlantic shipments for 1903 being 102,944,276 feet and for
1902, 123,000,000 feet.
The spool wood
industry has attained its greatest development on the Miramichi,
where 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 feet of birch are taken out annually
for this purpose. Clark, Skillings & Co., of Glasgow, have three
mills cutting about 2,500,000 feet each year.
THE RESTIGOUCHE
DISTRICT.
In the Restigouche
district there is still much virgin forest, spruce and cedar
predominating. Some pine and a good deal of birch, maple and beech
are also found. Nowhere else in the Province is cedar so plentiful
and the export trade in shingles is large. The Restigouche River,
two hundred miles in length, forms a part of the boundary between
New Brunswick and Quebec, receiving tributaries from both Provinces,
so that much of the cut of the Restigouche comes from Quebec lands.
The shipping ports for this district are Dalhousie and Campbellton,
the trans-Atlantic exports of lumber for 1903 from these points
being respectively 20,910,384 and 18,075,362 feet. These figures,
however, are considerably swollen by the amount of lumber
manufactured in the Province of Quebec and forwarded by rail for
shipment abroad.
The total
trans-Atlantic shipments of lumber from New Brunswick ports amounted
to 452,000,000 feet in 1902 and 391,000,000 in 1903.
Hon. Jabez B.
Snowball, lieutenant governor of New Brunswick, has been prominently
identified with the Miramichi lumber industry for over thirty-five
years. He was born in England, reared in Newfoundland and made his
success in New Brunswick. He did the latter Province valuable
service in promoting and building a railway. His first mills were on
the Miramichi River, and at Chatham he built a mill with a daily
capacity of 170,000 feet, the largest on the river. In 1900 the
interests of Mr. Snowball were converted into a joint stock company,
which is known as the J. B. Snowball Company, Limited, and is
composed of members of his family. The company cuts between
30,000,000 and 40,000,000 feet of lumber each year and owns nearly
six hundred miles of timber limits on Crown lands, held on the
twenty-five year system. It owns six tug boats on the Miramichi
River, employs nine hundred men in the busy season and has extensive
commercial interests. Mr. Snowball was the chief factor in the
organization of the first electric street and domestic lighting
service and also the first public telephone service in New
Brunswick. His interest in forestry matters has been marked, and he
has been 6f much service in furthering a better organization of the
lumber industry.
Hon. John Percival
Burchill, of South Nelson, New Brunswick, is a member of a family
which for the last sixty years has been engaged in the lumber
business in New Brunswick. He was born in 1855 on the Miramichi
River, and in the year 1875 took charge of the outside operations of
his father’s business. In 1881 he entered into partnership with his
father and brothers under the firm name of George Burchill & Sons.
They own over 150 square miles of timber limits in the Province. Mr.
Burchill has taken a conspicuous part in public life. He was elected
as a Liberal to the New Brunswick Legislature in 1882, and has
served two terms as Speaker of that body.
James Murchie, of
Milltown, New Brunswick, was born at St. Stephen, that Province,
August 13, 1813, of Scotch parentage. He began life as a farmer and
cut timber in a small way to sell to mill owners as an additional
source of income. Gradually his transactions increased until in 1859
he engaged in the manufacture of lumber, taking his sons into
partnership. James Murchie & Sons, in addition to their
establishments at Benton, Deer Lake, Fredricton and Edmundston, New
Brunswick, operated extensively in the adjoining State of Maine.
They acquired large areas of timber lands and a strong financial
position, although they suffered severe losses from fire. Mr.
Murchie filled many leading positions, including the presidency of
the New Brunswick & Canadian Railroad Company and the Frontier
Steamboat Company. He died, at the age of eighty-six, May 29, 1900.
The late William
Richards, who was one of the most extensive lumber operators on the
Miramichi River, New Brunswick, was born in Cardigan, York County,
that Province. He died at his home in Boies-town, New Brunswick,
June 1, 1903, after more than a year’s illness, aged sixty-eight
years.
CHANGES OF A
QUARTER CENTURY.
Great changes have
taken place in the conditions pertaining to the New Brunswick
industry and trade within twenty-five years. One of the more notable
of these changes is the effect of repeated timber cuttings on the
size of the logs. The sawyer of the late ’70’s would have been
astonished had he been asked to saw out a specification from such
logs as are now being used. Half a dozen log surveys (spruce) chosen
from a file at random and dated April and May, 1881, show nine
pieces to the thousand feet; a like number, dated April, 1904, shows
that seventeen pieces were required to make up the same quantity.
Each winter, as it
came, found the logging crews penetrating farther and farther into
the forests that bordered the main streams and estuaries of the St.
John River, the Miramichi and the Restigouche. Most of the ground
has been cut over several times, and in nearly all cases long before
the new growth has attained a size at all comparable with the
original growth.
What the ultimate
result of this decline in quality will be is hard to\r decide. On
the St. John River, where the industry is the oldest, the results
are beginning to be apparent in a slow but sure curtailment of the
annual output. In other sections of the Province the limits have not
been worked for a long period and the timber is therefore better.
One vital effect that is certain to follow the scarcity of large
timber will be the lack of new blood and new capital in the
industry. The virgin forests of newly settled countries are sure to
attract those who have the desire and means to devote themselves to
the manufacture of lumber. The demands of the pulp manufacturers for
material in the shape of undersized logs have had,during the last
few years, and will have in time to come, a tendency to still
further reduce the average size of available timber throughout the
lower counties of New Brunswick, and all other sections in the
vicinity of pulp mills. Heretofore, trees that were not large enough
to be manufactured into lumber were allowed to stand until they had
attained the necessary dimensions; nowadays, in numerous instances,
they are cut for pulpwood, the anxiety to realize upon them quickly
being, of course, the chief inducement.
Another marked
change in New Brunswick lumber conditions has resulted from the
diminution of the annual output of pine. Until about 1888 pine was
the staple forest product, American mills manufacturing little else.
Year by year the quantity of pine logs cut has decreased, until in
1904 1,000,000 feet would easily cover the total manufacture on the
St. John River. The logs secured in late years are small and of an
inferior grade, compared with those of the last century. In the
early ’80’s, when provincial logs were worth from $9 to $12 a
thousand feet on the St. John, considerable variation was the rule,
owing to the corresponding variation in the size and quality of the
logs. They would probably be a great deal higher today were they
obtainable. It is scarcely worth while to make any comparison with
the present prices, as they are seldom on the market in lots of
importance.
As pine gradually
became scarcer, spruce came more into demand and also more valuable
year by year, in spite of the gradual degeneration in size. This
increase in value is due chiefly to three facts: The logs are harder
to get; wages and supplies are more costly, and stump-age rates of
the material have increased. From 1880 to 1885 spruce logs that
could not be duplicated in the provinces today at any price brought
from $7 to $8.50 a thousand feet at the mill; from these figures the
price crept slowly upward until it reached $12.50, which price was
touched in 1904. During the twenty-five years immediately preceding
1905, the market price of spruce lumber in the United Kingdom had
been creeping up slowly but surely. In the year 1879 prices were
extremely low, several large lots having been disposed of at figures
that left from $5.75 to $6 a thousand for merchantable lumber. Of
course, it would not be reasonable to use these figures as a
criterion, for the year mentioned was one of light demand, forced
shipments and the consequent lower prices mentioned above. For
several years following, the trade showed a marked improvement both
in prices and demand. A fair average price for the early ’80’s would
have been $8.50 a thousand for merchantable spruce deals. From that
time until the year 1900 prices rose gradually, interrupted, of
course, by many periods of temporary depression, due to the presence
of unfavorable conditions; but always, when the reaction set in,
gaining more than had been lost. The end of the century found the
figures in the vicinity of $11.50 for merchantable. Then followed
three prosperous years. The demand during that period was extremely
brisk and the shipments from the provinces were larger than they had
ever been before, conditions being so favorable that in many cases
the American logs (which are worth $2 more a thousand, because their
product, when they are manufactured by an American citizen, is
allowed to go into the United States free of duty) were sawed into
English size and shipped to the United Kingdom.
The high water mark
in prices was touched in 1903 when merchantable deals were sold in
large quantities at figures that ranged from $13.25 a thousand to
$13.75 f. o. b. steamer at New Brunswick ports. Early in 1904 the
English market took a decided slump. Prices fell suddenly and
emphatically until on September 1 purchases could have been made as
low as $11.50 a thousand, with lumber plentiful.
The general
decrease in the size of logs being sawed has had a marked effect
upon the quantity of wide deals turned out, and the result is that
the difference in the percentage of the wide lumber in the
specifications is apparent and quite important in figuring the value
of lumber.
In recent years it
has been the general impression that the average quality of lumber
produced is much lower than that manufactured twenty-five years
previous. This is owing to the fact that the larger growth was
certain to be cleaner and to have fewer knots and twists. Of course,
in making a comparison of prices prevalent in recent years with
those of former times, this depreciation in size and quality is an
important element.
Twenty-five years
prior to 1905 consignments to the markets of the United States from
New Brunswick consisted chiefly of pine, the greater part of which
was made up of one-inch boards. In later years, for reasons
mentioned in an earlier paragraph, shipments of pine are few and
light. With spruce it is exactly the reverse. In the late ’70’s and
early ’80’s the shipments of spruce from the Maritime Provinces to
the United States were not of great importance; recently spruce is
the staple.
The spruce trade
with the United States has also changed in this, that the smaller
sizes have been much less in demand during the last few years,
whereas formerly the demand was principally for plank and scantling.
Recently it has run chiefly to three-inch stock.
On the whole the
variation in price has not been so great as in the case of the
English markets, although sudden fluctuations are more frequent. It
is estimated that the output of spruce lumber in New Brunswick in
1904 was 80,000,000 superficial feet. The estimated output for 1905
was 95,000,000 feet. The output in cedar shingles in 1904 was about
260,000,000 pieces, as compared with 255,000,000 in 1903. The market
prices of spruce lumber at Campbellton in 1904 were: $18 a thousand
for 10-inch and 12-inch dimension, $14 for 9-inch and under, $16 for
10-inch and 12-inch random lengths 10 feet and upward in length, and
$12 a thousand for 2x3, 2x4, 2x5, 2x6, 2x7, 3x4, 10 feet and upward
in length; $11 for all other randoms 9 inches and under in size 10
feet and up in length; $11 for 5-inch and upward widths merchantable
boards; $18 to $26 for matched boards; $9 for spruce boards; $11 for
bundled furring; $8 for pickets, and $2 for lath. Spruce clapboards,
extra, $42; clear spruce clapboards, $40; second clear, $38; extra
No. 1, $32; No. 1, $21; No. 2, $12.
The market prices
of cedar shingles at Campbellton were : Extras, $2.60; clear, $2.10;
second clear, $1.60, and extra No. 1, $1.10.
LUMBER STATISTICS.
According to the
Canadian census of 1901, the number of sawmills in the Province of
New Brunswick was 236 and the value of the product $7,041,848. As
the census, however, includes only industries employing five or more
hands, some of the smaller mills are not enumerated. The value of
forest products in the rough is given as follows: Square, waney or
flat timber, $34,484; logs for lumber, $1,667,694; pulpwood,
$37,577; miscellaneous, $1,295,860; total, $3,035,615. The following
are the quantities and values of the items under the two former
heads:
The forests of New
Brunswick always have been her greatest source of wealth, and
lumbering has been her greatest industry. Her first important
exports were lumber products and to this day the forests furnish
employment for a large proportion of her people and a splendid
revenue to her internal government. The volume of the product shows
a wonderful persistence, and it seems likely that, with the practice
of conservative forestry methods and the large area illy adapted to
agriculture, the forests will forever remain the chief resource of
the Province.
Complete figures of
logical arrangement are difficult to procure, but the following
tables give the most important facts as to the trade history of the
Province, and many enlightening details.
LUMBER AND TIMBER
SHIPMENTS OF NEW BRUNSWICK.
Shipments from
Miramichi for thirteen years, from 1892 to 1904 inclusive, in feet,
were:
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