18 TIMBER 



we get about 25 per cent., Germany 26 per cent., Eussia 

 33 per cent., and Sweden 44 per cent, of the total area of 

 the country under timber. 



Turning to the Western hemisphere, we find the United 

 States (exclusive of Alaska) with a forest area of at least 

 500,000,000 acres, and Canada with about 800,000,000, 

 although only about 300,000,000 can be looked upon as 

 merchantable timber. Canada's chief timber supplies lie 

 in Ontario with 7,750,000, Quebec 70,000,000, and British 

 Columbia 182,000,000 acres. 



In British India some 135,000,000 acres are covered by 

 forest, of which more than one half are more or less under 

 Government control. 



Australian forests cover about 173,500,000 acres, those 

 of Tasmania 11,000,000, and New Zealand 20,500,000, 

 being about 10 per cent, of the combined area of these 

 countries two-thirds of Tasmania are forest covered, and 

 about one-third of New Zealand. 



Japan has a forest area of about 28,500,000 acres. 



Of the timber resources of Africa but little is known, 

 though they must be considerable : large supplies of 

 mahogany come from the west coast. In Matabeleland 

 there is said to be 1,250,000 acres of forest, and a smaller 

 area in Mashonaland, whilst there are enormous supplies 

 in the region of the Congo ; but in Cape Colony, so destruc- 

 tive have been the native races for generations that the 

 colony is almost wholly dependent for its timber supply on 

 foreign sources, what timber there exists is difficult of 

 access ; the Crown reserve only amounts to half a million 

 acres. The French colony of Algeria, in the north, pos- 

 sesses over 8,000,000 acres, of which over half belongs to 

 the State. 



As regards South America, though there are no statistics 

 available, it may be stated that large portions of Colombia, 



