THE SUPPLY OF TIMBER 131 



Russia have increased more than tenfold, from 

 Austria-Hungary sixfold, and from Sweden three- 

 fold; and the production in these countries has 

 not increased at all. In the same interval the 

 quantity of timber used in Britain has increased 

 more than threefold; in Germany it is double; 

 and in France the increase amounts to one and a 

 half times. According to calculations of the 

 United States Forestry Department, the annual 

 consumption of timber in that country is three 

 times the annual production. Each of these 

 countries too is demanding more and more timber 

 for her own internal use, and with fresh discoveries 

 as to chemical utilisation of wood, factories are 

 being established where the forests exist and the 

 export of raw timber will be diminished in pro- 

 portion. All things go to prove that our hitherto 

 reliable sources of supply will cease, and we shall 

 be forced to rear at least a part of our consumption. 

 At present of the coniferous timbers used for 

 railway work, for mining and for building, and 

 general structural purposes, we now produce only 

 about two per cent, of the amount consumed. 

 We have the timber land, many millions of acres 

 of it, quite unfit for agriculture, but ideal for forest, 

 now lying more or less waste. We must afforest it, 

 and as mistakes with a crop which takes from 

 half a century to a century to mature are apt to 

 be costly, we cannot afford to adopt slipshod 

 rule-of-thumb methods. 



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