4 History of Forests and Forestry. 



1. Practically only the northern temperate zone pro- 

 duces the kinds of wood which enter most largely into 

 our economy, namely the soft conifers and the medium 

 hard woods; the woods of the tropics are mainly very 

 hard, fit for ornamental use mainly and less necessary. 

 Possibly a change in the methods of the use of wood may 

 change the relative economic values, but at present the 

 vast forests of the tropical countries are of relatively 

 little importance in the discussion of wood supply of the 

 world. 



2. The productive forest area of the temperate zone, 

 in which the industrial nations are located, has contin- 

 uously decreased. We shall not be far from wrong in 

 stating this area liberally, to be around 2,500 million 

 acres, namely in Europe, 800 million acres ; in Asia, 800 

 million acres; in North America, 900 million acres. 

 How much of this acreage is available virgin timber, 

 how much merely potential forest, how much growing 

 crop, it is impossible to state. 



3. The civilized wood consuming population of this 

 territory is about 500 million, hence the per capita acre- 

 age is still 5 acres. Taking the European countries 

 which now have to import all or part of their consump- 

 tion (excess over exports), we find that their population 

 is estimated at 180 million and that they use 40 cubic 

 feet of wood per capita, of which 16 cubic feet is log tim- 

 ber; or altogether 3,700 million cubic feet of this de- 

 scription, of which they import in round numbers 1,000 

 million at a cost of about 250 million dollars ; their forest 

 acreage of 90 million acres being insufficient to produce, 

 even under careful management as in Germany, quite 

 two-thirds of their needs. And the consumption in all 



