THE FOREST AS A RESOURCE. 



35 



population, was brought before the International 

 Forestry Congress at Paris, in 1900. The attempt 

 to secure such statistics in any way reliable is 

 almost hopeless, when we cannot even in our own 

 country get more than the roughest approxima- 

 tions ; moreover, even if it were possible to secure 

 some approximate figures, as long as there are no 

 attempts at management of the resource, the knowl- 

 edge would not be worth the expense it would en- 

 tail to gather it, since the conditions would change 

 without record being kept, hence the value of the 

 figures would be most ephemeral. 



A rough approximation would bring out the fol- 

 lowing condition of the earth's surface, from which 

 at least the potential forest area, that which, under 

 natural conditions, did or does or is able to produce 

 timber forest, can be estimated : 



PERCENTIC DISTRIBUTION OF LAND AREA 



