759 



Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 



are being worked over. Growth on all 

 trees in the forests is one side of the 

 balance sheet; losses from natural 

 causes plus fellings, the other. Com- 

 prehensive world figures are not avail- 

 able, because by no means all 

 countries have been able to report both 

 growth and drain. 



Sixteen European countries report 

 in total an almost exact balance be- 

 tween growth and drain for all forests, 

 both the coniferous and broadleaved. 

 Seven have a plus balance, nine a 

 minus balance. The Soviet Union, Ger- 

 many, and Hungary are not included. 

 On the same basis, the United States 

 reports a drain of 2*/a percent in excess 

 of growth. The same European nations 

 report a small excess (1.4 percent) of 

 drain over growth for coniferous for- 

 ests. The excess drain on conifers in 

 the United States is 23.5 percent; the 

 excess of growth over drain for broad- 

 leaved species is more than 18 percent. 



In the United States, the Forest 

 Service reports an excess of drain over 

 growth of about 50 percent for trees 

 of saw-timber size, a significant imbal- 

 ance. Comparable figures have not 

 been reported for the European coun- 

 tries, but in general the saw-timber sup- 

 ply seems to be fairly well kept in 

 balance with the allowed cut. Some 

 countries are now contemplating an 

 attempt to offset severe overcutting 

 during the war by reduced rate of 

 cutting. 



A large excess of drain over growth, 

 particularly if it is in larger size trees, 

 is a danger signal, indicating need for 

 measures to reduce the gap. The gen- 

 eral nature of the steps is mentioned in 

 the latter part of this paper. The de- 

 tailed measures, applicable to the 

 specific urgent situation in the United 

 States, have been reported by the 

 Forest Service (Gaging the Timber 

 Resource of the United States, U. S. 

 D. A. Forest Service, 1946) . Continua- 

 tion of a process of taking out more 

 than is grown can have only the effect 

 of reducing the growing stock the 

 situation already reported in detail by 

 the Forest Service. 



' . - j ,'->.:..> 



I NOTED EARLIER that forests were 

 unevenly distributed, both in relation 

 to population and as a fraction of the 

 total land area of countries and regions. 

 It is equally true that the production 

 and use of forest products varies enor- 

 mously from country to country and 

 from region to region. 



The figures in the table on page 746 

 are based on responses, covering 1945- 

 46, from 75 countries. It is known 

 that the figures for use of wood as fuel 

 are at best wide approximations, be- 

 cause detailed records are seldom kept. 

 And since not all nations are able to 

 report on production, exports, and im- 

 ports, it has been necessary to estimate 

 regional production and use of forest 

 products. 



The total estimated production in 

 1946 was nearly 50 billion cubic feet, 

 about 6 percent less than the 53 billion, 

 which was regarded as the prewar 

 normal. More than 61 percent of this 

 total came from the forests of Europe, 

 the Soviet Union, and North America, 

 with 47 percent of the productive for- 

 est area of the world, and about 13 

 percent from South America, with 25 

 percent of the productive forest area. 



It is estimated that, as a world aver- 

 age, 48 percent of wood is used for con- 

 struction and industrial purposes and 

 slightly more as fuel. The best avail- 

 able estimates indicate that in North 

 America about 78 percent of the total 

 consumption is as industrial wood, 

 whereas in South America and Asia 

 only about 17 percent is so used, the 

 rest going as fuel. 



Thus it is clear that the industrial- 

 ized regions and countries are rela- 

 tively heavy users of processed wood, 

 both as lumber and as pulp. A rela- 

 tively large part of this is coniferous 

 wood. Moreover, a relatively small 

 part of their total use of wood is as fuel. 



The great industrialized regions 

 Europe, the Soviet Union, and North 

 America have about one-third of the 

 people of the world and use 80 per- 

 cent of all the processed wood. 



The great bulk of the world's pop- 

 ulation uses relatively little manufac- 



