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Nine miles off the
coast of New Brunswick at its nearest point, lies Prince Edward
Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. At one time it was covered with
a considerable forest growth. It was visited in 1534 by Jacques
Cartier on his first voyage to the new world. In the “ Relation
Originate,” a description of Cartier’s voyage, is found the
following concerning Prince Edward Island:
“That day we
coasted along the. said land nine or ten leagues, trying to find
some harbor, which we could not; for, as I have said before, it is a
land low and shallow. We went ashore in four places to see the
trees, largely of the very finest and sweet smelling, and found that
there were cedars, pines, white elms, ashes, willows and many other
to us unknown. The lands where there are no woods are very
beautiful.”
Despite Cartier’s
failure to find a good harbor, the present capital city of
Charlottetown is located on one of the most excellent harbors of the
Dominion. Georgetown, in King’s County, situated at the juncture of
the Cardigan, Montague and Brudenell rivers, was formerly called the
“ Port of Three Rivers,” and was the center of the timber trade.
While the island
once possessed forests of considerable area, these have been largely
removed by forest fires, lumbermen and shipbuilders. At one time the
island was quite generally covered with timber, but now all that
remain are small growths of balsam, fir and spruce and even smaller
quantities of pine, larch, maple, poplar, beech, birch and cedar.
The total area of the island is about 2,184 square miles, of which
797 square miles remain in forest woodlands. Of this latter area at
least forty percent is timber of merchantable size.
In 1903 a forestry
commission was created by an act of the legislature. The Province
receives no revenue from forest lands, but hopes to do valuable
service in reafforesting denuded areas and conserving the remaining
timber.
According to the
census of 1901, relating to lumber products, there were in the
census year eight establishments of that character in Prince Edward
Island with an invested capital of $223,500. These gave employment
to ninety-five wage-earners and paid out $30,772 annually in wages.
The cost of materials employed was $49,406 and the value of the
annual product, $118,150. The following affords a comparison
concerning the lumber industry for a period of ten years:
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