4 CIRCULAR 21, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



sible annual growth many times the world's present timber require- 

 ments, it would seem that there is enough timber to last for cen- 

 turies. This would be true if all kinds of wood were equally capable 

 of satisfying our wants and if, like metals, wood could be molded 

 into any form or size desired, regardless of the form in which it 

 occurs in the forest. But such is not the ease ; wood is not a homo- 

 geneous substance; because of characteristics of growth, form, 

 structure, and mechanical properties, certain kinds of wood are bet- 

 ter adapted than others to meet the world's need. Except locally, 

 there is likely to be no shortage of fuel wood for several genera- 

 tions, because the size, form, and kind of tree are seldom of special 

 importance. Timber used in construction and the industries, how- 

 ever, must not only be of sizes that take 50 to 150 years to grow 

 (depending on kinds, locality, and size required), but it must ful- 

 fill certain mechanical requirements, and it must generally possess 

 physical properties that make it fairlv easy to work and handle. 



Of the 26,000,000,000 cubic feet of timber (not including firewood) 

 consumed by the world, three-fourths comes from softwood or conifer 

 forests, comprising such species as the pines, spruces, firs, hemlocks, 

 larches, cedars, sequoias, and cypresses. These forests are commonly 

 rather uniform in composition over wide areas, with only a few 

 species in mixture, and the costs of logging and milling are generally 

 less than for the more complex hardwood forests. The wood is 

 mostly light, soft, straight-grained, easy to work and nail, but strong 

 and durable, and hence convenient to use. The principal timber- 

 consuming peoples and industries are accustomed to using the soft- 

 woods, and could not readily adapt themselves to the use of other 

 kinds, such as the timbers of the Tropics, many of which require 

 quite different tools and methods of utilization. 



THE QUEST FOR SOFTWOODS IS WORLD-WIDE 



With a few exceptions, the softwood forests are confined to the 

 cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The Parana pine of 

 Brazil, the alerce, pino, and cipres of Chile, the cedar and yellow- 

 wood of Africa, the pines of the East and West Indies, and the 

 kauri and other softwoods of Xew Zealand do not occur in sufficient 

 abundance ever to become important beyond their own regions. The 

 principal softwood or conifer forest regions are (1) Xorth America, 

 including Canada, Alaska, western, northeastern, and southeastern 

 United States, and the Sierras of Mexico; (2) northern Europe; (3) 

 central Europe; (4) Asiatic Russia, Manchuria, and part of Japan. 



Taken as a whole, the conifer forests are already being cut faster 

 than they are being replaced, and the supply of softwood timber is 

 consequently diminishing. The potential growth is much greater 

 than the actual growth. Theoretically it is possible to grow as much 

 timber as is cut each year; actually, however, many of the forests 

 are so situated geographically or economically that intensive manage- 

 ment is not feasible. Some of the forests that might be most produc- 

 tive are being denuded and left in a condition from which recovery 

 will be exceedingly slow. Other forests where new crops of soft- 

 woods are growing are so situated that the trees are cut before their 

 maximum rate of growth is attained, or before they reach a size and 



