A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 283 



IS WORLD CONSUMPTION DECREASING? 



The United States was an especially lavish consumer of wood during 

 the nineteenth century. The population was doubling every 30 years. 

 Farms, towns, and cities were multiplying at a phenomenal rate. 

 A network of railroads was being extended from the Atlantic Ocean 

 to the Pacific, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Industries 

 of all kinds were growing at a rate which has probably never been 

 equaled anywhere else in the world. A wealth of virgin timber, 

 excellently adapted to a great variety of uses, was ready at hand or 

 easily reached by railroads and waterways, and was practically free 

 for the taking. No wonder, then, that the per capita consumption 

 of wood in America surpassed that of most of the other industrial 

 nations, which no longer had extensive virgin forests. 



The consumption of sawed lumber and probably the aggregate con- 

 sumption of wood in all forms reached a peak about 1906 or 1907. 

 About that time the rate of population growth began to slow up, and 

 within a few years the number of farms and the mileage of railroads 

 reached their peaks, while at the same time the tendency to concen- 

 trate people and industries in multistoried buildings in the cities 

 called for the use of more steel and concrete and less wood in con- 

 struction. Both the per capita and the total wood consumption 

 began to fall off, and the decline has continued, with some interrup- 

 tions, ever since. The consumption of lumber has declined almost 

 precipitously since 1929. 



Phis decreasing rate of consumption in the United States during the 

 last 25 years, coupled with the decreasing consumption in practically 

 all countries since 1929, has given rise to the widespread belief that the 

 trend of world timber consumption is inevitably downward. Not 

 only the forest owners, but also those responsible for formulating 

 public forest policies are questioning whether there will be any de- 

 mand for timber in the future. As a result of present conditions, 

 there has been generated in this country a pessimistic psychology not 

 unlike that which prevailed in Europe toward the end of the eight- 

 eenth century as regards the future possibilities of the use of wood. 

 There is a feeling that wood use is at the end of an economic epoch, 

 and that from now on wood is to play a progressively smaller part in 

 human civilization. 



CONSUMPTION TRENDS 



Examination of the facts regarding world timber consumption is 

 therefore of interest. Statistics are not available for every country, 

 but a study of the trends in some of the representative consuming 

 countries will give sufficient indication of what may be expected. 



GREAT BRITAIN 



In Great Britain, 2 approximately 95 percent of all the wood con- 

 sumed is imported. For many years domestic production has fur- 

 nished only an insignificant portion of the total quantity consumed. 

 The growth or decline of imports, therefore, reflects closely the trend 

 in consumption. 



a Information supplied by Arthur C. Ringland, principal forestry specialist, based upon records of the 

 British Forestry Commission and data supplied by Mr. Fraser Story, of the commission. 



