AMEBIC A AND THE -WORLD S WOODPILE 7 



AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, AND OCEANIA 



In Australia, also, the softwood supply is inadequate for local 

 needs, and attempts are being made to supplement the native forests 

 by extensive planting of pine. Much pine, fir, and spruce lumber is 

 imported from North America, Europe, and northeastern Asia. For 

 many years New Zealand supplied Australia with softwoods. Now 

 her forests are so depleted that New Zealand is restricting the ex- 

 portation of certain woods and is extending the area of conifers by 

 planting in order to meet her own future needs. The small areas of 

 softwood forest in New Guinea and the other islands of the Pacific 

 are insignificant from the standpoint of the world's supply. 



SOUTH AMERICA 



Of the 3,270,000 square miles of forest in South America, only 

 5 per cent is composed of conifers. The bulk of the supply is in 

 the Parana pine region of southern Brazil and adjacent portions 

 of Argentina and Paraguay. Southern Brazil, Uruguay, and north- 

 ern Argentina, the heaviest wood-consuming districts of South 

 America, may be expected to take practically the entire output ox 

 Parana pine. At present the entire region produces only one-third 

 to one-half as much softwood timber as Argentina alone buys from 

 the United States and Canada. The other South American coun- 

 tries depend on the Northern Hemisphere for a considerable portion 

 of their construction timber, although most of them have extensive 

 forests of hardwoods. 



NORTH AMERICA 



In North America are approximately 1,600,000 square miles of 

 conifer forests. This includes some of the world's most productive 

 forest land, such as the Douglas fir and redwood regions of the 

 Pacific coast, the eastern white pine region, and portions of the 

 southeastern yellow pine belt. Vast areas, however, are not so pro- 

 ductive. Although Canada has nearly 850,000 square miles of coni- 

 fers, only one-third to one-half of the area is capable of producing 

 saw timber in commercial quantity. The rest has such unfavorable 

 conditions of soil or climate that trees grow very slowly there and 

 do not reach large size. Alaska has dense forests of good timber 

 along the southeast coast, but the bulk of her forest area — that in 

 the interior — can never furnish much large material to outside con- 

 sumers. The Rocky Mountain region of the United States can not 

 produce any considerable surplus over its own needs, which are 

 growing. The same will be true of the southward extension of the 

 mountain pine region in Mexico and the Central American re- 

 publics. These countries are now importing a large proportion of 

 their softwood lumber from the United States. 



The total remaining stand of conifer saw timber in Canada is 

 estimated to be only one-third of the amount in the United States. 

 If it were all available for consumption in this country it would 

 meet our needs, at the present rate, for only 15 years. At the present 

 time, however, Canada uses three-fifths' of the lumber she produces, 

 and as her population grows her lumber requirements may be ex- 

 pected to increase also. The Canadian supply of pulp wood, while 



