314 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
In the difficulties that are likely to be experienced 
from a shortage of the timber-supply of the world, 
England would be well advised to remember the old 
adage about self-help; for she will get but little 
from outside, as yearly those countries become fewer 
that possess enough timber for export as well as for 
home consumption. As population and prosperity 
progress, so does also the demand for forest products, 
so that even those countries that now possess a 
surplus stock may not in the future have enough 
even for their own requirements. In some European 
countries, where there are large areas of both public 
and private forests that have been under scientific 
management for centuries, the demand of the popu- 
lation for timber is already in excess of supply, 
while both to the east and to the west of these 
islands difficulties before unknown are beginning 
to make themselves felt. For instance, the com- 
bined forest area of France and Germany and 
Switzerland approaches some 100,000 square miles, 
yet each of these countries imports timber from 
abroad, and can better afford to do so by reason of 
the profit derived from the careful management 
of their own forests. Denmark, Italy, Spain, and 
Portugal, are in a worse plight; for their forests 
neither yield sufficient produce for the inhabitants, 
nor, apparently, any large revenue to the State. 
Russia, Scandinavia, and Austria-Hungary, are 
still exporters of timber, but the amount that will 
continue to be available from thence must de- 
pend on the demands of the population of these 
countries, and on the answer to the question 
whether the forest capital or only the interest 
