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giving an approximate area of 2,500,000 square miles. The nominal forest area has been estimated at 1,000,000,000 acres and the actual available area of merchantable timber at 200,000,000 acres. The supply of merchantable timber is about one-fourth of the supply available in the United States. There are forty-five principal commercial woods produced. More than one-half of the standing timber of the Dominion is in British Columbia, where is the largest and most compact area of merchantable standing timber left in the world today. The area covers more than 180,000,000 acres and the amount of timber is estimated at nearly 400,000,000,000 feet. The value of forest products exported during 1918 is estimated at $65,436,204 as compared with $52,280,875 in 1917.

The manufacture of wood pulp has become an important industry, having increased more than 250 per cent. during the last ten years. The output of wood for pulp manufacture in 1908 was 482,777 cords, with a value of $2,931,653. In 1917 the output was 2,101,356 cords, and the value $18,788,333. The pulp wood resources of the country are estimated at 1,033,370,000 cords.

Metals and MINERALS

Canada is well supplied with important metals and minerals and the studies which have been made during the war by the Imperial Munitions Board are expected to result in a large exploitation of them.

The Dominion Government has appropriated $200,000 for making the experiments with lignite as a substitute for anthracite recommended by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and a similar sum has been provided by Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Canada is largely dependent upon other countries for oils but an effort is now being made to develop deposits in Western Canada. The quantity and value of some of the important mineral productions during 1917 follow:

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The total value of Canada's mineral productions in 1917 was nearly $193,000,000. There are many minerals not included in the above compilation which are known to exist in large amount, but which have not yet been developed in commercial quantities. The output of the principal mining industries in 1918 was about the same as during 1917 because of a shortage in labor supply, but the value increased considerably, being estimated at $220,000,000. The production of coal during 1918 is estimated at 15,180,000 short tons. The estimated production of the more important metals during 1918 is estimated as follows:

Gold, $14,750,000 in value; silver, 20,800,000 ounces; copper, 117,000,000 pounds; nickel, 91,500,000 pounds; zinc, 36,000,000 pounds; pig-iron, 1,182,000 short tons.

THE FISHERIES

During the war much more attention than formerly was given by the Canadians to their fisheries, because of the realization that in them the country possessed an offset to the world shortage of food. The suggestion is now made that the Government turn to them as a debt paying source, and under the direction of the Dominion Fish Committee plans are being made to exploit both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the lakes in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. There are 5,000 miles of coast-line on the Atlantic and 7,000 miles on the Pacific. The inland fisheries

cover 200,000 square miles of fresh water, or half the fresh water area of the world. Not including the vast quantity of fish caught of which no record is kept, the value of fish marketed by Canadians in 1917 was $52,352,044, of which the sea fisheries contributed $47,052,605 and the inland fisheries, $5,299,439. Nearly 100,000 men were employed in the industry and the value of the equipment used was estimated at $33,520,748. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has been studying the utilization of the great quantities of fish waste. It is estimated that 300,000 tons of fish offal and nonmarketable fish are annually allowed to go to waste and that the fish oil which could be obtained from this waste would be worth nearly $6,000,000 at current market prices, while other by-products would reach a value of several hundred thousand dollars

more.

RAILROADS

There are eighty-three steam railroads in Canada with a total mileage of 51,359.74. Their capital stock is valued at $1,089,114,875 and their funded debt at $896,005,116, a total investment of $1,985,119,991. Their gross earnings, as of June 30, 1917, the latest available, were $310,771,479; operating expenses totalled $222,890,637; and net operating revenue, $89,892,502. In 1917 the number of passengers carried was 53,749,680 and the number of tons of freight, 121,916,272.

Under the title of the Canadian Government Railways there are now operated 13,364 miles of steam railroads, the larger part of this comprising the Canadian Northern Railway, which was taken over by an Act of the Dominion Parliament last year at an award price of $10,800,000, but which is still being operated by the organization built up by those who formerly owned the road. The highly successful Canadian Pacific Railway is still privately owned and operated, but suggestions have been made that it be acquired by the Government. In this connection consideration has also been given to the possibility of bringing all the railroads under Government ownership, but with the operation in the hands either of the Canadian Northern or the Canadian Pacific organization.

The chief railroads of Canada are indexes of the extent of that country and a glance at a map will show that they still fall far short of reaching into every section of the country where commercial possibilities exist. The Canadian Northern Railway system comprises more than 9,296 miles, distributed as follows:

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