THE REALISABLE RESOURCES OF THE GERMAN FORESTS. 107 



our native supplies enormously reduced. I think our country 

 ought to set aside at least 160 million cub. metres for her own 

 use, during the next five years, from the amount of material cut 

 in Germany. 



Our British friends used to import annually nearly 15 million 

 cub. metres, which they bought in Russia, Sweden, Norway, 

 Austria, etc., and in their colonies. Their needs are going to 

 be greatly increased by reason of the exhaustion of all supplies. 

 The United Kingdom will certainly be able to absorb about 

 100 million cub. metres of wood during the five years following 

 the war. 



Italy, Belgium, and Serbia would together take about 100 

 million. 



Finally, the Germans themselves — whom we shall be careful 

 to forbid felling timber in competition with us — would absorb a 

 good part of what was not required by our friends and ourselves. 

 We should not, doubtless, refuse to sell to them at a reasonable 

 rate. Germany used annually to buy from abroad 12 to 13 

 million cub. metres and produced about 20 million. 



There is thus no reason to anticipate any difficulty in the 

 utilisation of all this material, provided we take five years at 

 least over it. 



V. 



Although the object of this article was to consider the forests 

 of Germany, I think I ought to add a few words about the 

 forests belonging, or formerly belonging, to the allies of Germany. 



Of the Turkish and Bulgarian forests there is nothing to say. 

 There are no reliable statistics about them. Even if there were, 

 what will remain of these countries themselves after peace comes? 



What was formerly Austria-Hungary was a very rich country 

 in forests, both broad-leaved and coniferous. The creation of 

 free republics, our friends, and the re-union of Roumania and 

 Transylvania, will only leave a few provinces to Austria and 

 to Hungary. 



Lower Austria contains 681,000 hectares of forest, of which 

 only 4 % belong to the State. In Upper Austria the figures 

 are 408,000 and 14 %; in the province of Salzburg, 232,000 and 

 53 % > in Styria, 1,049,000 and 5 % ; in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, 

 1,104,000 and 11 %. Over the whole the conifers (spruce, 

 Austrian and Scots pine, silver fir, larch) occupy at least two- 



