96 TIMBER REQUIREMENTS 



Mediterranean markets, and was unlikely to lose 

 such a favourable opportunity to get rid of her rival 

 in this manner for a time. 



Russia.- -Russia is at once the most disappointing 

 country in this Mediterranean trade, of which she 

 only supplied about one-sixteenth before the war, 

 and the greatest hope of the future so far as it is 

 concerned. She could easily supply nearly the whole 

 of the trade from her great reserves of forests, amount- 

 ing to some 18,000,000 acres in the Caucasus and 

 along the Black Sea littoral, these forests chiefly 

 belonging to the Crown. The forests consist of 

 beech (25%), oak (i6%),elm (12" 8%), pines (8%), 

 spruce (6'6%, chiefly in the Black Sea Maritime 

 Province), and Caucasian fir (A. Nordmannia] (6%, 

 of which there are large forests in the Black Sea 

 district). 1 



The forests consist mainly of trees 150 to 200 

 years old, some 200 to the acre on an average. These 

 forests are to all intents and purposes unexploited, 

 except a strip 'along the Black Sea littoral. When 

 these forests are opened out, they will inevitably 

 have an effect in reducing the strain upon the North 

 European timber markets, and will not improbably 

 affect favourably in this respect the world markets. 

 Too much stress cannot be laid on this point of view, 

 and a glance at the map will demonstrate the truth 

 of the contention. 



Now, if the above brief analysis of the position 

 of the European countries and the markets upon 

 which they depend for their timber supplies is any- 



1 Vide Part II, British Forestry. 



