In New Brunswick over 1.6 million acres, mostly woodland (containing over 10 billion feet) was granted to the railway company and another million acres or so is in other private possession; a liberal disposal of lands having been continued until 1883, when about 71⁄4 million acres of timber and waste land remained to the crown.
In Quebec some 6 million acres are estimated as privately owned, mostly in woodlots on farms. In Ontario the private woodland area of commercial character may be over 5 million acres.
Besides the large grants which were and still are probably to the greatest extent in timberlands, the farms in the various provinces, according to the Census of 1901, have from 22 to 57 per cent. in woodlots, or altogether probably in the neighborhood of 30 million acres.
The total area privately owned may then be placed at not to exceed, say 40 million acres, and the largest part of the forest area, is still crown lands, the government of the different provinces and the Dominion government in the territories and in the middle provinces administering them and deriving the revenue therefrom. This condition has prevailed since 1837, when the home government gave up its claim to land and revenues.
The provincial ownership extends over about 500,000 square miles. The Dominion government owns an area of 20,000 square miles in the railway belt of British Columbia, 20 miles on each side of the railway for 500 miles, which contains good timber, and some 722,000 square miles of land in the middle provinces which contains practically only timber suitable for local use.
3. Administration of Timberlands.
In the development of ownership conditions, the realization of the valuable assets in timber growth had not been overlooked by the home government, care of supplies for naval construction giving, as in the United States, the first incentive to a conservative forest policy.
Even under the early French rule, the grants of land were made under reservation of the oak timber fit for naval use, as is evidenced from a landgrant made in 1683. This reservation led to considerable friction as it hampered the colonists in making their clearings on the best lands. Later, the reservation was extended to include other timber needed for military purposes, and when the British occupation began, these established rights of the crown were not only continued, but reservations of larger areas for the timber were ordered, notably around and north of Lake Champlain. In 1763, and again in 1775, the home government ordered reservations to be set aside in every township.
But the great timberwealth seemed so inexhaustible that the governors paid little attention to the wise instructions of the home government for the creation of reservations, and whatever regulations regarding the cutting of timber were made, failed to be strictly enforced. In 1789, the policy of reserving to the crown all the timber as far as not granted, and giving licenses to cut, was inaugurated; but not until 1826 was even the revenue feature strongly enough realized to attempt systematically to secure the benefit of it, namely by allowing anyone to cut timber “such as was not required for the navy” who would pay a fixed rate for what was cut; a surveyor-general of woods and forests being appointed to collect the timber dues with the aid of qualified “cullers” (1811). There was even an attempt made to prevent waste by doubling the rate of timber dues on all trees cut which would not square more than 8 inches; this restriction probably remained a dead letter for lack of supervision.