Leningrad, but also in industry and railroad transportation, and as raw- 

 material for numerous wood-using industries. 



Siberia has a great reserve of forests. It has a forest area two and one-half 

 times that of the European portion of the Soviet Union. So great are 

 Siberia's forest resources that about 6 billion cubic feet of softwood timber 

 a year could be exported and the domestic consumption increased to about 

 4 billion cubic feet without depleting the resource. When compared with 

 the world's present exports of timber, Siberia's possibilities for trade and 

 exchange in forest products are enormous but limited by the cost of making 

 the timber available. 



Sweden, for its size, is one of the richest countries of the world in timber 

 and, with the exception of Finland, has the highest percentage of forested 

 area in Europe. The soil and climate are particularly well adapted to forest 

 grow r th. Sweden not only exports much timber, but her forests also supply 

 important home industries with lumber and wood pulp. 



A thousand species of trees, many of which yield excellent timber, grow 

 unusually w r ell in Japan because of the favorable climate, especially plentiful 

 moisture. More than one-half of the total land area of Japan is productive 

 forest land. The comparatively large proportion of forest land is the com- 

 bined result of mountainous areas unfit for cultivation, the difficulty of 

 transportation, and the State policy of protection and reforestation. Japan's 

 lumber exports are many times her imports. Other exports of forest prod- 

 ucts include charcoal, camphor and camphor oil, bamboo, vegetable wax, 

 bamboo ware, and woodenware. The average annual cut per acre is little 

 more than seven-eighths of the average annual growth; hence, Japan is on 

 a sustained-yield basis. 



Great Britain, with a very small area of forests of her own, must depend 

 almost entirely on imported raw materials, about one-eighth from her 

 colonies and about seven-eighths from foreign countries, much of it coming 

 from the Soviet Union andSw T eden. 



Figure 18. — Where forests will grow, not where they still are. Even though there are still 

 vast forest areas on other continents from which wood could be secured, why does the citizen 

 of this countrv need forests at home? 



32 



