NATIONAL ASPECTS OF FORESTRY 15 



important question. Five hundred years ago houses in 

 most parts of Europe were built ahnost entirely of wood. 

 At a later period stone and brick entered into their con- 

 struction to as great an extent as timber. At the present 

 time the builder uses steel, iron, concrete, and other 

 materials to such an extent that it is doubtful if a modern 

 city house of six or eight storeys, or a ' sky-scraper ' of 

 twelve or fourteen, consumes much more wood in its 

 erection than a manor house or hall of three hundred 

 years back. In shipbuilding much the same change 

 of raw materials has taken place, not to mention 

 other industries of minor importance. Wood pulp, pit 

 props, mining timber, street paving, etc., use enormous 

 quantities of timber, it is true, but for all of these 

 purposes small timber, which can be produced in the 

 course of half a century, can be used, and it is difficult 

 to say what quantity of this class is standing in Scandi- 

 navia, European Russia, or Canada, leaving out of account 

 the production of other countries. Countries with numer- 

 ous and well-developed industries, such as Great Britain, 

 Germany, and Belgium, consume much more timber 

 than purely agricultural countries like Denmark, Holland, 

 or Ireland, or those in which small industries, associated y" >-».>-. 7^^ 

 more or less with agriculture are carried on, such as u"' F'.y'll ^ 





Hi 



France, Switzerland, Austria, etc. As a matter of fact "* v^T-^ '^ 

 agricultural, or mainly agricultural countries, are, or ./■^''"frt: 10 

 ought to be, practically self-supporting in the way 

 of timber, partly because the consumption per head 

 is low, but chiefly because the population has a tend- 

 ency to remain stationary owing to the surplus emi- 

 grating to countries of an industrial nature, or to thinly 

 populated regions out of Europe. Exceptions to this 

 rule may be found where a long period of neglect has 

 reduced the forest area to a low ebb, but even here 

 the imports are, so far as can be ascertained, very small. 



