FORESTS OF THE WORLD 57 



hardwoods, but so very different are the hardwoods of the tem- 

 perate zone and those of the tropics that it makes for clarity 

 to divide them. The conifers are the most important for gen- 

 eral construction timber and for paper making; the hardwoods, 

 both temperate and tropical, are used principally for high grade 

 furniture and special materials. The temperate and tropical 

 hardwoods seldom mingle, but the demarcations between con- 

 ifers and temperate hardwoods are not always distinct since 

 they often occupy the same forest soil over large areas. Such 

 forests we call mixed forests, or mixed hardwoods and soft- 

 woods. Forests that contain only one kind of tree we call pure 

 forests thus an area occupied entirely by pine is a pure pine 

 forest. 



For the world as a whole, conifers occupy thirty-five per 

 cent of the forest area, temperate hardwoods sixteen per cent, 

 and tropical hardwoods forty-nine per cent. Almost half of 

 the earth's forest area is covered with tropical hardwoods, but 

 since three-fourths of the people of the world live in the tem- 

 perate zone, it is natural that the conifers and the temperate 

 hardwoods should be better known and that they should have 

 suffered most at the hands of man. On the forests of the North 

 Temperate Zone alone, the world depends for over ninety per 

 cent of its construction materials. 



The tropical hardwoods are destined to become important 

 forests of tomorrow. When we come to learn what they con- 

 tain and the many uses to which they may be put, tropical 

 timbers will be shipped in greater quantities to those countries 

 of the world now needing wood. It is doubtful, however, if they 

 can ever take the place of the softwoods for construction timber 

 in the world's market. 



