102 



CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



one hundred per cent during the period; but all other increases are eclipsed by 

 of the consumption of wood pulp (diagram No. 2 on the left), which increased 



from nine and one-half pounds per capita in 1886 to tnarty-nme pounds in 1900, an 



increase of over 300 per cent. 



F*H CAPITA. 



CONSUMPTION OF WOOD PULP 

 IN CHEAT BRITAIN 



F-KH CAPITA 



CONSUMPTION OF CABINET WOODS 

 tN Gl^BAT BRITAIN 



DIAGRAM No. 2. Showing on the right the per capita, consumption of cabinet woods 

 in the United Kingdom for the years 1886-1900, and on the left the consumption of wood 

 pulp during the same period. 



The same tendency is shown by Germany and other European countries. The 

 German Empire, with twenty-four per cent of the land under forest and practis- 

 ing the most intensive forest management in the world, has notwithstanding a greatly 

 increased production of wood in recent years, failed utterly to keep pace with her in- 

 creasing needs. Up to 1863 Germany was a wood-exporting country. By that year 

 her growing home consumption had overtaken her production, and imports and exports 

 equalled each other. Since then, keeping pace with the development of her modern 

 industrial life, her needs for wood have steadily grown, and despite her increased 

 production her imports exceeded her exports in value to the amount of $70,000,000 

 in 1900, and the unfavourable balance still grows. 



Nearer home we find the same story, but with even greater emphasis. The United 

 States per capita consumption of 160 feet board measure in 1850 has steadily grown 

 from decade to decade, until in 1900 it reached 460 feet. The total consumption has 

 grown at a much more rapid rate (see diagram No. 3), for the increase of population 

 has been very great. In 1850 between three and four billion feet supplied the needs 

 of the nation, and in 1900 it required more than thirty-five billion feet. The rapidly 

 advancing prices of the last decade, aggregating fully one hundred per cent, have 

 failed to materially check this tremendous consumption, for the latest statistics indi- 

 cate a small but substantial increase in the per capita consumption. We have not 

 sufficient data at hand to determine the present per capita consumption in Canada, 

 but we may safely assume that the tendency is similar here to that of other civilized 

 nations. 



Not less noticeable than the increasing demand for timber by civilized countries 

 is the diminishing of the supplies of such kinds and qualities as are most generally 

 useful, and nowhere has the diminution of supplies more strongly contrasted with in- 



