370 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



timber supplies, when conservation of resources for home consump- 

 tion is the true, statesmanlike attitude? We know that the lumber 

 industry is suffering from overproduction and seeking increased mar- 

 kets, but other remedies than increased exploitation of the best grades 

 can surely be found to cure the industry. 



The material is handled in the clear and comprehensive manner to 

 which we are accustomed from the hands of Mr. Zon. We would, 

 however, suggest that by mixing Persia and France with the Medi- 

 terranean countries the picture becomes unclear. With Persia, which 

 stands for the "Near East," we have so far nothing doing, and there is 

 not any likelihood of trade in that direction. France does, to be sure, 

 border on the Mediterranean, but as far as we can see in the import 

 statistics the part of our export to France that comes to Mediterranean 

 ports has not been segregated, and hence the picture is clouded. And 

 since out of the total of 10 or 12 million dollars' worth of imports 

 about 50 per cent go to France, the cloud is considerable. 



In comparing the contribution of imports from various countries, 

 the same irrelevancy appears, when Finland, Russia, and Sweden are 

 cited, for the bulk of their exports to France, with some 25 million 

 dollars, surely goes to other than Mediterranean ports. 



So far, Roumania and Austria-Hungary furnish the bulk of im- 

 ports to Mediterranean ports, due, according to the author, not only 

 to physical advantages, but to greater initiative on the part of lumber- 

 men of these States as compared with Russia, where also lack of 

 capital to develop the Caucasian forest area, high cost of logging in 

 the mountains, lack of efficient mills, and generally primitive conditions 

 are charged as causes for lack of trade. 



What the fviture will bring us is, of course, now more than ever a 

 sealed book. 



Italy, which takes the lion's share of the truly Mediterranean im- 

 ports, with about 24 million dollars' worth out of 45 million, will 

 probably feel the difficulty of supplying herself after the war most 

 seriously. 



Incidentally, the reduction of imports in 1915 below those of ante- 

 bellum years is striking. Italy's imports fell from 25 million in 1913 

 to 4.7 million in 1915. France, which in 1913 had increased her wood 

 imports to nearly 58 million dollars, had in 1915 only little over 18 

 million dollars import, while the export had been reduced to one-half. 



B. E. F. 



