CHAPTER VI. 

 OUR SUPPLIES OF WOOD. 



IN spite of the substitution of iron or other substances for wood 

 in shipbuilding and other industries, with the increasing numbers 

 of civilized man the consumption of wood increases at such a rate 

 as to demand serious attention. 



The clearing of forest land for the purposes of agriculture has 

 been most recklessly carried out, especially during the last century 

 in the United States and in Canada, much of the wood being 

 wasted. Where, too, the timber has been cut for use, this has 

 in general been done so completely without any provision for the 

 regeneration of the forest-lands as to lead to their extinction. 

 The floods and famines of China, the waste of the agricultural 

 soil in Ceylon, the barrenness of Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia 

 Minor, and Cyprus, the drying up of the springs and deterioration 

 of the climate in South Africa, Mauritius, Turkey, and Spain 

 have been attributed mainly to wholesale destruction of forest. 

 The felling of the woods on the Atlantic coast of Denmark has 

 exposed the country to sharp sea winds and drifting sand, forming 

 lagoons and bogs and causing a marked deterioration of the 

 climate : the disafforesting of the Appennines during the last 

 two centuries has much increased the violence of the mountain- 

 torrents ; and even in Russia, which has not only the largest area 

 of forest of any European state, but the largest percentage of her 

 whole area under forest, a decrease in the waters of the Volga 

 has been attributed to the same cause. 



