Canada, like all new countries, depends for her prosperity upon the
development and exportation of her natural products. These are of four
great classes: (1), the products of her forests; (2), the products of
her mines; (3), the products of her fisheries; (4), her agricultural
products. Canada's forest resources, when both extent and quality are
considered, are the finest in the world. The forest area uncut was in
1891 nearly 1,250,000 square miles, or more than one third of the area
of the whole country. The annual value of the timber and lumber
produced is about $82,500,000. The annual value of the timber and
lumber exported is about $32,000,000. Two thirds of this goes to Great
Britain, and over $9,000,000 in lumber and logs goes to the United
States. Quebec and Ontario have unlimited supplies of spruce for
wood-pulp manufacture, the annual output of which reaches 200,000
tons. The uncut lumber of British Columbia, which includes Douglas
pine, Menzies fir, spruce, red and yellow cedar, and hemlock, is
estimated to be 100,000,000,000 cubic feet.