22 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



bility of replacing it by other materials. If we 

 regard the chair we sit on, the table we eat from, 

 the paper we write on, as necessities, it is fair to 

 say that over 99 per cent of all wood is used in 

 supplying real wants, while less than i per cent 

 is used to furnish luxuries, such as fancy articles, 

 carvings, and other decorations. But even if only 

 the use of wood as fuel, for the construction of 

 shelter for man and goods, for the building of 

 bridges and harbors, for purposes of transportation, 

 agriculture, mining, and manufacture, is considered 

 as necessary in distinction to unnecessary or luxu- 

 rious uses, it may still be asserted that there is 

 more than 95 per cent in bulk or weight thus 

 consumed. 



Our civilization is built on wood. From the 

 cradle to the coffin, in some shape or other, it 

 surrounds us as a convenience or a necessity. 

 It enters into nearly all our structures as an es- 

 sential part. Over half our people live in wooden 

 houses, and the houses of the other half require 

 wood as an indispensable part in their construc- 

 tion. It serves to ornament them, to furnish them 

 with conveniences, to warm them, to cook the food. 

 More than two-thirds of our people use wood as 

 fuel, and until recent times it was the only or prin- 

 cipal means of melting the ores and shaping the 

 metals with which to fashion the wood itself (see 

 Appendix). For every hundred tons of coal mined, 

 two tons of mining timber are needed, and wood 



