716 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September, igi6 



The Timber Marl^ets of India 



ByH.R. . 

 Tijnber Trade Com 



The use of timber in India is ex- 

 tremely limited. The annual per 

 capita consumption of timber, in- 

 cluding- all forms of rough wood 

 used for fuel and other purposes, is 

 estimated to be 1^ cubic feet, of 

 which four-fifths is used for fuel. 

 The total quantity of timber used, 

 aside from fuel, is 96,000.000 cubic 

 feet, equal to about 960.000,000 feet 

 board measure, or three board feet 

 per year per head of the population. 

 By far the greater part of this is used 

 in the form of rough logs and poles 

 for building purposes. 



This extraordinarily sparing use 

 of wood is due to several causes. 

 The earning power of the population 

 does not exceed 80 cents per head 

 per month, and buildings are there- 

 fore small and consist of mud, grass 

 and bamboo supported by a mini- 

 mum of timber for posts and rafters. 

 Wherever there is population white 

 ants are destructive. Only ant- 

 proof woods can be used for building 

 purposes in India. 



Ant-proof J Foods. 



Ant-proof woods are restricted to 

 a very few native species, chief 

 amongst which are teak, deodar, and 

 sal. These species are high in 

 price both because of the great de- 

 mand and because of the extremely 

 costly methods of handling timber 

 in vogue in India. Even in a sparse- 

 ly settled, forested portion of Assam, 

 sawn joists three feet by four inch 

 by 12 feet sold for $48 per thou- 

 sand feet board measure. Ordi- 

 narily rough hardwood logs eight 

 inches to 14 inches diameter sell at 

 the railroad station in the treeles 

 Punjab. India's great wheat-grow- 



MacMUlan, 

 missioner of Canada. 



ing district, for $40 per thousand 

 board feet. Teak, which is the uni- 

 versal building timber in the cities, 

 sells at the coast ports at $100 to 

 $110 per thousand feet for small di- 

 mension boards and planks. Such 

 prices in a country where the aver- 

 age daily wage is about 4 cents ne- 

 cessarily restrict the use of timber. 

 India is not an industrial country. 

 Fully nine-tenths of the population 

 live directly or indirectly by agricul- 

 ture. The Indian agriculturist 

 makes -his own few tools, has no 

 barns or outbuildings and lives in a 

 mud or grass hut. He gets along 

 without timber. 



The Results of Forestry. 



The use of imported timber is 

 confined exclusively to the indus- 

 trial centres, railroads, public works 

 and military necessities. The agri- 

 cultural population uses absolutely 

 no imported timber. 



That Indian forests are able to al- 

 most completely meet the require- 

 ments of the country for timber is 

 due to the splendid forest adminis- 

 tration inaugurated by the British 

 government half a century ago. 

 About 40 per cent, of the country is 

 under forest. The whole of this 

 area is administered carefully to 

 prevent destruction by fire and over- 

 cutting, and although at the time of 

 British occupancy the more acces- 

 sible forests had been almost ruined, 

 wise management h?= already great- 

 ly increased their productivity. 

 There still remain in some provinces, 

 notably in Burma, large areas of 

 hardwood forest, suitable for indus- 

 trial purposes, which through lack 

 of capital, suitable machinery and 

 equipment have not been rendered 

 accessible. 



