PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FORESTS 9 



gion no better than Palestine and parts of southern Europe 

 now are. 



It is believed by many that when our own forests are 

 exhausted we can go to other countries for our supply of 

 forest products. That will not be possible. Our neighbor, 

 Canada, must retain enough for her own use, and she is 

 bound to give the mother country what surplus she may 

 have, for Great Britain is practically destitute of product- 

 ive forests, although at this writing she proposes to plant, 

 at great expense, no less than 9,000,000 acres in the United 

 Kingdom; and much of the expense will be for the pur- 

 chase of agricultural lands for forestry purposes. Already 

 have several of the Canadian provinces prohibited the 

 exportation of pulp-wood cut on crown lands. Of all Euro- 

 pean countries only Russia and Norway have more forests 

 than they need, but the area of forests in the latter country 

 is small. Germany imports one third of the amount of wood 

 consumed within her borders, notwithstanding that twenty- 

 five per cent of her area is covered with productive forests. 

 France has eighteen per cent of her domain in forest, but 

 this produces only one third of what her people consume. 

 Except those noted none are growing enough forest pro- 

 ducts to supply their own wants, and civilized nations 

 should recognize the fact that we are facing a world-wide 

 timber famine, and the calamity of such a famine will come 

 all too soon unless active measures shall be adopted to avert 

 it ; and, what is more, the erosion of the soil in part 

 consequent upon the denudation of the forests and in part 

 caused by our present careless and unwise system of culti- 

 vation when combined with the rapid exhaustion of all 

 our natural resources, most prominent among which are 

 the forests, will, if continued, render this globe ill-fitted 

 for civilized human abode. The condition of our own 

 country is fairly typical of that of the whole civilized 

 world. It is discouraging to realize that this country of 

 ours will, erelong, reach the high-water mark of its pro- 

 sperity, but that time will soon come unless the impending 



