PERIODICAL LITERATURE 



[The slimness of this department is due to the absence of all 

 German forestry literature, owing to interference with mails by 

 Great Britain.] 



FOREST GEOGRAPHY AND DESCRIPTION 



In a paper, read before the Pan-American 



South Scientific Congress in January, Mr. R. Zon 



American has brought together from various sources 



Forest information regarding forest conditions in 



Conditions South America. 



This article confirms what we have known 

 all along, albeit with more detail and certainty, that in spite of 

 the extensive woodland cover, estimated at 38 per cent, varying 

 from State to State between 15 and 80 per cent, desirable wood 

 supplies of the continent are scanty and unavailable for variotis 

 reasons, among them the nature and distribution of the species, a 

 matter which can not be helped, and inaccessibility, which may in 

 time be overcome. 



The total forest area is stated as 1924 million acres, but taking 

 Chili alone with 38 million acres only about 5 million are com- 

 mercial forest, 6 million may furnish poles and stakes, 9 million 

 are pasture forest and 18.5 million fuel wood. 



The species are mostly very heavy and hard woods, mostly of 

 value only as finishing wood and distributed in a manner that, if 

 any one species were to be logged, a very large acreage would have 

 to be hunted over to secure volume, making logging cost prohibi- 

 tory except for most valuable material. It is stated that to secure 

 the one million tons of quebracho wood consumed or exported 

 annually from Argentina, 500,000 acres must be logged over. 



The importations from the United States, Canada and Europe, 

 chiefly pine and spruce, softwoods, into Argentina amount to 80 

 per cent of her wood consimiption, into Brazil 40 per cent, into 

 Chili 55 per cent. 



So far only two conifers (Araucaria brasiliensis, the Parana 

 pine, and A. imbricata, the Chilian pine); Spanish cedar (Cedrela 

 odorata and several other species, cedro); quebracho, noted for its 

 tannin contents, and greenheart (Nectandria rodioei), associated 

 with. moTa (Dimorphandr a mora), noted for its teredo-proof quality, 



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