1885.] SOURCES OF TIMBER SUPPLY. 269 



SOURCES OF TIMBER SUPPLY. 



AT a meeting of the Society of Arts, in their rooms, John Street, 

 Adelphi, on December l7, 1884, a jjaper on "Present 

 and Prospective Sources of Timber Supplies of Great Britain," was 

 read by Mr. P. L. Simmonds. Sir Charles Tupper, C.B., High 

 Commissioner for Canada, took the chair. The lecturer said the 

 information obtained by the Colonial and Foreign Offices some six 

 years ago, to ascertain how far we could depend upon our own 

 possessions to supply our undoubted deficiencies at home, although 

 useful to a certain degree, was very incomplete. The committee of 

 the Edinburgh Forestry Exhibition invited essays on this subject, 

 and the present paper was one of those rewarded. The immense 

 impoitance of the extraneous supply of wood to this country was 

 proved by the magnitude of our imports as shown in the Board of 

 Trade returns for the last two years. These exceeded £18,000,000 

 in value, to say nothing of our home supply of wood, and other 

 forest products brought the total value to over £31,500,000. In 

 1883, out of 6,647,211 loads imported, only a little over 1,529,000 

 loads came from India and our colonies. According to the latest 

 official returns, the areas under woods and forests in the principal 

 countries of Europe amounted to 726,829,119 acres. The great 

 importance of North America for the future timber supply of the 

 world might be deduced from the fact that Canada possessed almost 

 1,000,000,000 acres of timber lands, and the United States nearly 

 as much. But the United States shipments for some few years past 

 have become almost stationary at a little over £3,000,000 sterling 

 in value. British India and the other jjarts of Asia, however, 

 furnished useful supplies of wood, and would contribute more, as the 

 forests were more easily reached by rivers and roads. 



The South American forests had as yet furnished but little timber 

 to Europe, except small supplies from Mexico, Central America, and 

 British Guiana. The magnificent forests of Brazil, with their large 

 varieties of wood, had yet to be drawn upon, but at present were for 

 the most part inaccessible to the wants of commerce. This paper, of 

 which we have made further use in this number, is given at length 

 in the Journal of the Society of Arts, No. 1, 674, vol. xxxiii., Dec. 

 ' 19, 1884. London: Bell & Sons. We observe that Mr. Simmonds 

 is to read a further paper before the Indian section of the Society, 

 on 20th February, on the "Teak Forests of India." 



