42 



BULLETIN 354, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



long to produce as to consume it. New growth, however, during 

 the period will extend the supply to slightly more than 16 years. 

 It is, however, not to be expected that the island will be denuded of 

 all woods at the end of this period. Experience teaches us that whab 

 actually happens in such cases is that consumption decreases as more 



3^Yea t 



ear \s / \ \ 





X 



Fig. 7. — Per capita supply, production, and consumption of wood in Porto Rico, showing the rate at which 

 present merchantable wood supply is being drawn on each year to meet domestic need, and the rate of 

 its replenishment through new growth. The large circle represents the present per capita wood supply 

 (185 cubic feet) exclusive of imports. The small circle represents per capita of wood production in one 

 year (4 cubic feet), and the dot and dash circles the corresponding production per decade. (Based on a 

 present annual growth of 10 cubic feet per acre per annum, equivalent to 4 cubic feet per capita.) 



and more people are unable to pay the advancing prices. In the 

 present instance it simply means a progressively increasing privation. 



TREND OF FUTURE DEMANDS. 



Education and the establishment of a more permanent form of 

 agriculture will inevitably raise the standard of living among the 

 lower classes and increase correspondingly the demands on the forests 

 for both building materials and fuel, and besides these is the 

 normally increasing demand occasioned by increased population. 

 Kerosene and denatured alcohol can not, at least for a long time, 



