Among the large notable forest fires the great Miramichi fire in New Brunswick in 1825 destroyed more than 6,000 square miles in a few hours. In 1880 the loss by forest fires in the Ottawa valley alone was still estimated at $5,000,000 annually. In 1909, reports indicate over half a million acres burnt over in that year. The river systems of Eastern Canada, with the mighty St. Lawrence permitting sea-going vessels to come up to Montreal, have been most potent factors in the development of the lumber industry and export trade, without the need of railroads. Yet although, as a consequence this trade was early developed to a relatively large figure, it has not grown at as rapid a rate as might have been expected, and to-day with an export in excess of imports of less than 40 million dollars is considerably below that of the United States. The small export trade of earlier times, having been stimulated by exempting Canadian timber from paying duties in the home country, or at least allowing it a preferential tariff, had by 1820 grown to 15 million cubic feet, all squared timber, and sent to England. In 1830, it had crept up to only 20 million cubic feet, but by 1850, it amounted to over 50 million cubic feet, two-fifths of which was sawed material, the 2632 mills being reported by the Census (1851) as having cut 776 million feet B.M. By 1867, when the Dominion was formed, the total export of forest products had advanced in value to $18 million; the next decade, with a climax year in 1873 of $26 million, saw an increase to $20 million in the average, the proportion of sawn material being nearly three times that of hewn wood, and the entire cut of Ontario going to the United States. At that time it was computed that the waste of value in shipping square timber amounted for the province of Ontario alone still to over $350,000 annually. At present sawed lumber, deals, boards, planks, etc., form 70 per cent. of the total export. In the last 20 years a steady increase in exports at an average rate of about 3 per cent. per annum is noted, the total in 1903 culminating at nearly $41 million, but in the following year sinking to 36.7 million. In 1910, the total export amounted to $53 million, against which an import of nearly $16 million is to be offset, nearly double what it was three years before. Adding wood manufactures, the net export must be increased by some $36 million. The bulk of the export goes, of course, to the United States. But, while exports of forest products thus increased absolutely, relatively to other exports they have considerably declined, i.e., the lumber industry has not grown proportionally to other developments, for while, in 1868, forest products formed 34 per cent. of the total export, in 1904 they represented only about half that figure.