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 15 cubic feet is log tim- 
ber; or altogether 2,700 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 
