752 



Yearbook of Agriculture 1949 



4. Industrial development of addi- 

 tional countries, such as is now ap- 

 parently planned in parts of South 

 America, Asia, and Africa, would in- 

 crease competition for the already 

 limited softwood supplies available for 

 export. 



5. The best opportunities for piec- 

 ing out existing supplies of softwoods 

 lie in four directions: 



Larger recovery of products from 

 forests and trees, which might increase 

 supplies from 15 to 20 percent (i. e., 

 pulp as a byproduct of lumber), and 

 salvaging the unused material in the 

 woods. 



More efficient design in the use of 

 wood, for example, in housing, which 

 might reduce use in the order of 10 to 

 15 percent. 



Substitution of other materials, for 

 example, in housing steel, stone, 

 cement, brick. 



Substitution of hardwoods for soft- 

 woods. The great area of tropical hard- 

 woods offers an apparent opportunity 

 to do so. Many such substitutions are 

 technologically feasible and are pri- 

 marily questions of economics, that is, 

 of price levels. 



But established habits and patterns 

 change slowly and substantial changes 

 in forms and economy of use are sel- 

 dom made overnight, even under the 

 most severe pressure of need. 



THE EXISTING SHORT SUPPLY, par- 

 ticularly of softwoods, emphasizes the 

 need for the installation of forestry 

 practices everywhere, and the opening 

 to use of inaccessible productive for- 

 ests. There is little evidence that any 

 country, great or small, can continue 

 to depend indefinitely on readily avail- 

 able imports, at least to the degree that 

 now exists. It appears, rather, that full 

 use of native supplies, even though 

 they are not ideal, will be forced. The 

 opening up of unused forests, construc- 

 tive management of forests now under 

 exploitation and, for the long run, 

 restoration of forests are all required 

 to insure supplies as needed. 



It is worthy of note that a large 



fraction of the productive inaccessible 

 forests are classed as "tropical hard- 

 woods." This generic term encom- 

 passes thousands of tree species, of 

 which only at most a few hundred have 

 been adequately studied to determine 

 the use values of their woods. Most of 

 these are now of interest to consumers 

 only for highly special and valu- 

 able qualities, such as beauty, hard- 

 ness, softness, durability. 



THE TASK OF FINDING out what the 

 tropical hardwoods can do to better 

 balance the world's needs for utility 

 woods requires a vast deal of tech- 

 nological research. Effective market 

 demand and substitution of one wood 

 for another is not apt to come about 

 through vague generalizations. The 

 industrialized wood-using areas of the 

 world can potentially ease their supply 

 problems by research programs in wood 

 technology, regardless of where the raw 

 material supplies may be. Supply, as 

 well as quality, needs to be known for 

 the thousands of presently unused trop- 

 ical hardwood species. The using na- 

 tions have a valid motive to take 

 interest in forest exploration and in- 

 ventory and in technological research. 



The meaning of the world's forest 

 situation as here sketched seems rea- 

 sonably clear. The Food and Agricul- 

 ture Organization, an international 

 organization set up to study, analyze, 

 advise, and help, needs to continue to 

 do everything proper to stimulate and 

 aid governments to apply forest man- 

 agement. Primary initiative must, of 

 course, come from each nation acting 

 in its own self-interest. A country 

 such as the United States, which 

 possesses a great estate of productive 

 forest land, which has appraised its 

 own current and prospective needs, 

 which has estimated current and 

 prospective forest growth, needs to 

 keep its own balance sheets in con- 

 tinuous review and decide on and ap- 

 ply production goals for its own needs 

 and for export. There is every reason 

 to believe that growing industrializa- 

 tion of presently underdeveloped coun- 



