The Outlook for the World's Timber Supply. 



125 



and issued by the Central Bureau of 

 Statistics in 1904, it is stated that 

 106,000,000 cubic feet of timber are 

 being annually cut in Swedish forests 

 beyond the annual increment. If this 

 official information be correct, and I 

 have no reason to doubt it, it would 

 appear that Swedish timber exports 

 cannot be indefinitely maintained at 

 their present high level. I cannot pre- 

 tend to know much about Sweden from 

 personal examination, but last year I 

 travelled for about a thousand miles in 

 the country and endeavored to learn 

 what I could. The impression left on 

 my mind was that in much of the coun- 

 try the rock is hidden by but a thin 

 covering of soil, and that the growth of 

 trees is very slow. Moreover, when a 

 forest is felled, the soil suffers severely 

 from washing by the heavy rains, and 

 where drainage is defective there is the 

 same tendency to the formation of peat 

 as Schwappach noticed in Russia. It 

 was also evident from my cursory in- 

 spection of the country that no attempt 

 is being made to continue the forests on 

 much of the area hitherto under wood. 

 Dairy farming is advancing at a great 

 rate, and herds of cows could be seen 

 grazing on much of the disafforested 

 land, and effectively repressing any 

 young forest gro\\-th. The State, how- 

 ever, has recognized the need for action, 

 and has recently placed a small export 

 duty on timber, the proceeds of which 

 are to be devoted to the reafforestation 

 of Government lands. In Sweden, there- 

 fore, as in Russia, the future will see 

 some improvement in the methods of 

 forest exploitation, but with a crop like 

 trees results mature but slowly, and 

 especially in a high latitude. 



T do not propose to do more than 

 merely allude to the position of matters 

 in the United States and Canada. The 

 Bureau of Forestry of the United States 

 has recently issued several publications 

 that take a distinctly gloomy view of the 

 situation. In one of them^ it is stated 

 that in that country "the present 

 annual consumption of wood in all 

 forms is from three to four times as 

 great as the annual increment." In 

 another official brochure ^ it is esti- 

 mated that the timber supply will be 

 exhausted in thirty-five years at the 



1 The Timber Supply of the United States, 

 1907. p. 12. 



2 The Drain upon the Forests, 1907, p. IS, 



most, but that this point may be reached 

 as soon as nine years. In its publication 

 entitled "The Waning Hardwood Sup- 

 ply," the Bureau commits itself to an 

 estimate of sixteen years as the duration 

 of the supply of this class of timber.' 

 That the United States is feeling the 

 pinch of scarcity is clearly indicated by 

 the fact that she is importing more and 

 more timber every year. 



I will not presume to say more about 

 the position of the timber supply in the 

 country in which we are now assembled 

 than this, that it is common knowledge 

 that great areas of forest in the Eastern 

 Provinces have been depleted, that the 

 exports of Canada's most valuable 

 lumber tree — White Pine — have greatly 

 diminished, and that she has now got to 

 import no inconsiderable quantities of 

 such hardwoods as hickory, oak and 

 walnut. But that there are great un- 

 tapped areas to the north of Ontario and 

 Quebec and on the west of the Rocky 

 Mountains appears to be generally 

 admitted, and no doubt the meeting 

 will be favored with an authoritative 

 statement on this important subject. 



There is one region of the world to 

 which the eyes of men are keenly bent, 

 that seems to offer possibilities of con- 

 siderable, perhaps of large, supplies, but 

 it is most difficult to make even an 

 approximate estimate of what these 

 possibilities really are. I refer, of course, 

 to Siberia. The latest authoritative state- 

 ment of the timber resources of that 

 country has come in the fonn of a report 

 from the British vice-consul, Mr. Hodg- 

 son,- who speaks hopefully of develop- 

 ments in the East of Siberia, where 

 forests cover an incalculable area. From 

 that region timber may be got out- to 

 the Pacific by means of such great 

 rivers as the Amur; but with regard to 

 Siberia as a whole, the opportunities of 

 export are very limited. A shipping 

 trade with the north of that country 

 cannot be contemplated, and trans- 

 portation over thousands of miles of 

 rail is almost equally impossible. 



I have indicated the opinion of M. 

 M^lard with regard to the future of 

 Russia's timber exports, I may also 

 quote his opinion on the question of the 

 world's supply generally. In the review 

 already referred to he says: "The con- 



1 p. 8. 



2 Report on the Lumber Industry in the 

 Russian Far East, 1908. 



