Canadian Forestry Journal, August, 1918 



1833 



Great Timber Wealth of South America 



By H. N. Whitford 

 Prof, of Tropical Forestry, Yale University. 



Let us take a survey of some of 

 the tropical forest regions of the 

 world and see what the ])ossibilities 

 are. One of the most active indus- 

 trial tropical and semi-tropical re- 

 gions in the world is southern Brazil. 

 According to a report of the Brazil- 

 ian Government, the forested area 

 of this region of Brazil is estimated at 

 1,058; 000 sqquare kilometers (ap- 

 proximately 260 million acres). 

 There are two fairly distinct forested 

 regions — the coastal and plateau. 

 The former has a high annual pre- 

 cipitation and, for the most part, a 

 high temperature. In no place is 

 it far distant from tide water. It is 

 heavily forested. Unfortunately 

 there are no estimates of the total 

 amount of timber. H. M. Curran 

 has examined a large timber pro- 

 perty in the mountains back of Bahia 

 and finds the forest has an average 

 stand of about 10,000 board feet 

 per acre; according to the types, the 

 stand will vary from 6,000 to 13,000 

 feet per acre. About 10 species will 

 furnish the bulk of the cut. He 

 estimates that comprising 42 per 

 cent of the cut are soft hardwoods 

 similar to yellow poplar. Thirty per 

 cent, are similar to maple and ash 

 in hardness and 28 per cent, harder 

 than white oak. The softer species 

 are little known on the markets, but 

 could be introduced and substituted 

 for the uses for which imported 

 pine is employed. 



The plateau district lying behind 

 the coastal mountain ranges has 

 lower temperature and rainfall. In 

 places it is fairly heavily forested 

 with hardwoods and Parana pine. 



The hardwoods are usually con- 

 fined to the valleys, though patches 

 of them are found on the uplands. 

 Simmons states that in Parana one 

 company claims ownership of con- 

 nected forest tracts of Parana pine, a 



large part of which is in a primitive 

 state, aggregating three billion feet 

 and averaging about 4,000 feet to 

 the acre. There are sections where 

 the growth is thick and large; the 

 stand scales as high as 15,000 to 

 20,000 feet to the acre. 



Outdoes Southern States 



The above are the only available 

 figures that give any indication of the 

 volume of the forests. Assuming 

 that the estimate of an area of 260 

 million acres for the region under 

 consideration is correct, divide this 

 area by two to make a liberal allow- 

 ance for non-merchantable forests, 

 clearings, etc., there will remain 

 130 milhon acres covered with 

 merchantable forests. At 5,000 

 board feet per acre this will give a 

 t ot al of 650 billion feet. It is believed 

 that this estimate is very conserva- 

 tive. At any rate, for all practical 

 purposes it is sufficiently accurate. 



There is nearly twice as much 

 standing timber in this region as in 

 the southern yellow-pine forests of 

 the United States, the most active, 

 lumber-producing centre in the world 

 with an annual cut of 15 billion feet. 

 Rich Amazon Regions 



The Amazon forest can be regard- 

 ed as the greatest reserve forest of 

 the world. While it is not as near 

 to lumber-consuming centres as the 

 other forest regions that have been 

 mentioned, water transportation alone 

 considered, it is nearer to the great 

 centres of the eastern United States 

 and western Europe than the Pacific 

 Northwest. Aside from climatic 

 conditions, there is no other forest 

 region that has its physical condi- 

 tions so well adapted to lumbering. 

 There are literally thousands of miles 

 of navigable rivers and many more 

 thousands that are drivable. Ocean 

 steamers ply up to rivers over 2,500 

 miles from the coast. Moreover, 



