24 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



which together contain about one-third of the population 

 of Europe. Spain, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, Roumania 

 and Greece possess large areas of State forests, which are 

 probably under some form of protection, and in the event 

 of their further industrial development, will be properly 

 administered. The effect of this movement upon the 

 home timber supply of these countries in general must 

 be considerable within the next fifty years, especially as 

 regards the quality and yield of commercial timber per 

 acre. In Germany, for instance, out of a total forest area 

 of 34,000,000 acres, about 12,000,000 acres are stocked 

 with trees not more than forty years of age, and 9,000,000 

 acres between forty and eighty years of age.^ This would 

 indicate the probability of the present estimated yields of 

 the German forests, 20,000,000 tons, being largely increased 

 in the future. A similar preponderance of comparatively 

 young crops in most of the other countries mentioned above 

 may be observed, due to the increased activity in affores- 

 tation during the last half-century, and there is no indica- 

 tion at present that this activity is likely to decrease, but 

 rather the reverse. While, therefore, the home timber 

 supply of several countries may be unable to meet the 

 whole of their present or future requirements, it is possible 

 that the deficiency may not greatly increase on the whole, 

 whatever the position of particular localities may be, 

 owing to industrial development. 



But apart from the position of the more thickly popu- 

 lated portions of Europe as regards timber production, 

 there can be no question that Northern Europe possesses 

 a forest area greatly in excess of its actual requirements, 

 and capable of exporting, under proper management, the 

 greater part of the timber needed in thinly wooded 

 countries for all time. Between the Arctic Circle and 

 the 55th degree of latitude a belt of land exists which 

 may, in a comparative sense, be regarded as a vast forest. 



^ Statistisches Jahrbuch/ur das Deutsche Reich. 1908. 



