1901 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



4i 



officer. No fee is asked for short visits to cient to pay all necessary expenses for a 



forest ranges and the invariable courtesy year in the woods of Europe, and permits 



of European forest officials makes these of a fair amount of traveling. Less than 



possible to anyone who bears the proper that sum would curtail one's movements 



credentials. One thousand dollars is suffi- somewhat undesirably. 



THE WORLD'S DEMAND FOR TIMBER AND THE SUPPLY. 



By Raphael Zqn. 



IN the beginning of the 19th century, 

 when the amount of coal obtained from 

 the mines was insignificant and the 

 means of transportation were inadequate, 

 while industry and population were rapidly 

 growing, an opinion prevailed that the 

 existing supply of fuel would not last long 

 and that a fuel famine would follow. 

 This common belief had a beneficial effect, 

 for attention was drawn to the forests, and 

 forest exploitation was placed on a more 

 rational basis. A hundred years later, at 

 the beginning of the 20th century, we see 

 that this prediction is not realized, and 

 that the forests are able to furnish large 

 amounts of fuel for unlimited time to 

 come. 



Fear of a fuel famine no longer prevails, 

 but instead, a timber famine is predicted, 

 that is a lack of wood for structural pur- 

 poses. This question was discussed at the 

 International Congress of Sylviculture held 

 in Paris last summer, where M. A. Melard 

 read a paper on " The Deficiency of Wood 

 Production in the World," which has at- 

 tracted general attention. Extracts more or 

 less extensive appeared in nearly all forest 

 magazines. Almost all of the following 

 data are taken from the Revue des Eaux 

 Forets, the organ of French foresters. The 

 author touches upon a question which is of 

 interest not only to a forester but to any 

 man occupied with social and economic 

 problems. The cardinal idea which he 

 tries to emphasize can be briefly formu- 

 lated as follows: The amount of timber 

 consumed at present all over the world 

 exceeds the amount normally produced by 

 the forests ; hence this excess of consump- 

 tion over the normalproduction is covered 



at the expense of the main wood capital, 

 thus leading to devastation and destruction 

 of forests in those countries which have 

 still large forest areas, such as Canada, 

 Russia, the United States. To prove this 

 statement Melard presents figures, seem- 

 ingly carefully collected, concerning the 

 export and import of timber of all civilized 

 countries. The statistics of timber export 

 and import together with the information 

 as to the magnitude of the available ripe 

 crop, condition of the growing crop, rate 

 of growth, and rate of wood consumption 

 are the only means by which a fair idea of 

 the timber supply of a country may be ob- 

 tained. 



M. Melard begins with England, and 

 states that the British Isles are but little 

 forested. The wood produced in England 

 itself is of inferior quality and far below 

 the amount necessary for the needs of its 

 commerce and industries. It is obliged, 

 therefore, to rely upon other countries for 

 its wood. The average annual imports of 

 timber into Great Britain during the past 

 five years have exceeded the exports by 

 423,600,000 cubic feet which is about 99 

 per cent, of its total consumption. This 

 does not, however, represent the a mount 

 actually cut to cover England's need for 

 wood. At least two-thirds of the timber 

 imported by England consists not of 

 but of products already more or less tit for 

 direct use; so that more than 423.600,000 

 cubic feet must be cut to supply the entire 

 wood consumption. M. Milanl. therefore, 

 fives 529,^00,000 cubic feet as the amount 

 of timber which has to be cut to suppl) 

 England's demand. Tins yearh timber 

 supply costs England $94,000,000 and 



