HARDWOOD RECORD 



17 



Tehieles and other commoJities from us. Italy lias much for sale 

 and the people are anxious to increase their business dealings with 

 America. Conditions are favorable for larger sales there of lumber 

 and of articles made of wood. It is not so much u matter of creating 

 a desire on the part of the Italians to purchase from us, as it is of 

 making it possible for them to do so. If our purchases from them 

 eould be increased, they would respond by purchasing more from us. 

 Italy is not a heavily timbered country, and it has never been 

 during historical times. It appears to have been thickly populated 

 at the dawn of history, and early writers have little to say of forests 

 in the modern sense of the word. It is apparent that Italy has 

 imported most of the lumber nsed during many centuries, though 

 much cheap native stuff is cut for bo.xes, fuel, and stakes for grape 

 vines. It is said that Nero found Home built of wood and left 

 it built of marble. That would imply that wood at one times was 

 important as a building material. Excavations at Pompeii show 

 little use of building hnuber, but a fair amount for furniture. The 

 •early Italians knew how to work in wood, and samples of their car- 

 pentry which have come down to tlie jtresent time compare favorably 

 with the best work of today. They knew how to make and lay 

 veneers, but every part of the work was done with hand tools. They 

 appreciated finely figured woods and used them to advantage. Italy 

 today is the largest buyer in southern Eurojie of our red gum. Its 

 finely figured forms appeal to the Italian cabinet maker. 



.The Balkan States 



The countries lying between the Adriatic and the Black seas, in- 

 ■cluding European Turkey, Boumania, Bulgaria. Servia. Albania, 

 Greece and Jlontenegro, are not large purchasers of American lum- 

 Ijer, for two reasons. Some of those countries have a fair amount of 

 f^orest of their own, and they are not extensive users of building 

 lumber. Eoumania, though farthest from us, buys more of our for- 

 ■est products than all the other Balkan countries together. Its pur- 

 chases are largely agricultural implements which contain much Amer- 

 ican wood. 



Servia, Bulgaria. Turkey and Greece have been so distracted by 

 war of late that the figures of exports to that region for 191,3 are 

 scarcely a fair sliowing; but at the best those countries are pros- 

 pective rather than developed markets for lumber. 



Information concerning forest resources in the Balkan states is 

 fragmentary and unsatisfactory. The total area of forest land is 

 placed at 20,000,000 acres, apportioned as follows (before last Balkan 

 war) : Eoumania 6,000.000, Bulgaria 7,000,000, Servia 3,000,000, 

 Greece 2,000,000, Turkey 2,000,000. Territorial divisions following 

 -the war in the Balkans redistributed these areas, some countries 

 now having more, and Turkey in Europe now possessing less, but 

 the total of 20,000,000 acres remains. 



Total area of forest is not a reliable basis on which to calculate 

 the stand of timber. Much of the area designated as forest land in 

 the Balkan states is covered with scrub growth of no present or 

 prospective value. Greece, for example, is credited with 2,000,000 

 acres of forest, but it is said that much of this area consists of 

 precipice, bare rocks, stony gorges, and sterile hills without a mer- 

 chantable tree in sight. The country was heavily forested in ancient 

 times, and the Greeks cut ship timbers for the largest navies in the 

 world at that time. Two thousand years of abuse and waste have 

 left scarcely a remnant of commercial forest. Similar conditions 

 hold throughout most of the Balkan countries. Bulgaria has forests 

 more valuble than the others, and considerable box lumber has been 

 recently exported from there to Greece and Turkey in Asia. 



Other Terkitort 

 Some forest exports are going from the United States to Asiatic 

 Turkey, but that trade is confined almost wholly to the Mediter- 

 ranean coast between the Dardanelles and Egypt. The interior of 

 the country is not a buyer of lumber. It cannot be handled with 

 the present means of transportation. The coast of Syria, north of 

 Palestine, was once a timbered region whose products were exported. 

 The cedar and pine for Solomon 's temple were cut there, and like- 

 wise most of Egypt 's supply of wood. No remnant of the wood 

 \ised in Solomon 's temple has come down to modern times, but some 



of the Egyptian eoflins and boats remain. If they are fair samples 

 of the grade of lumber taken from ttie Syrian forests three or four 

 thousand years ago, it was rather poor stuff. The wood was too 

 knotty to meet the requirements of a modern lumber buyer who is 

 accustomed to white pine, yellow pine, or Douglas fir. 



The Island of Malta with 188,000 people, Gibraltar with 27,000, 

 and the Azores and Madeira islands with 408,000, are included in 

 the Southern Europe aroa. They arc comparatively large users of 

 American wood. 



Exports to Southern Europe 

 America's exports of forest products to southern Europe are 

 grouped in fourteen classes, which are shown below with the value 

 of each for l!)i;!: 



Commodit.v VaUie 



I-mnber $l,0f)'.>,t)75 



Cooperage 1,579,489 



Sawed timber • • 1.1,'»0,117 



Agricultural implements l,l)40.:<55 



rurniture 112,284 



Round logs 55,072 



Horse vehicles 39,70."? 



.Joists and scantling 23,260 



Sash, doors, blinds 24,425 



I'ulp 19,009 



Hewed logs 6,130 



Woodenwaro 2,243 



Incubators and brooders I,0:i8 



House finish 571 



Total ,- $0,049,981 



The lumber included in the above item consisted principally of the 

 following woods: 



Longli'af pine $1,352,020 



Ked gum 400,573 



Oak 100,525 



Cypress 8,121 



White pine 3,443 



Yellow poplar 2,910 



Other lumber 64,781 



The cooperage total is made up of the following items: 



Staves $1,300,183 



Shocks 9,864 



Kmpt.v barrels 9,442 



Destinations 

 The destinations of the lumber and other forest products sent 

 to southern Europe in 1913 included eleven countries or colonies, 

 each of which is separately shown in the statistics. It may here be 

 seen at a glance where our best export trade lies. It was distributed 

 as follows : 



Destination Value 



Italy $2,520,392 



Spain 2.119,020 



Portugal 848,079 



noumania 374,489 



Azores and Madeira 55,735 



Turkey in Europe 52.831 



Greece 48,276 



Bulgaria 23,756 



Gibraltar 1,148 



Malta 187 



Servia 68 



Total $6,049,981 



Italy is our best customer in southern Europe for forest products. 

 A grouping of its purchases in 1913 is shown below: 



Commodity Value 



Lumber $ 997,592 



Hewed and sawed timber 891,028 



Agricultural Implements 417, .'542 



Kurnlture 85,7,S9 



Pulp 19,009 



Cooperage 14,074 



Joists and scantlings 13,550 



Woodenware 1,883 



Carriages and wagons 620 



House finish 454 



Incubators 380 



Other manufactures of wood 83,871 



Total $2,526,392 



