THE FOREST RESOURCES OP THE WORLD. 63 



no forests, and its demand for timber is constantly increasing as a 

 result of the growing industries and the extension of railroads. 



The Equatorial zone is supposed to contain virgin forests able to 

 replace Canada and Sweden in the market. Melard shows that the 

 Equatorial forest is much less rich and extensive than has been 

 thought. Near the Gulf of Guinea, between 10° N. and 4° S., there 

 is a wooded area which is estimated at from 45 to 60 miles wide. 

 East of this zone are found savannas, covered for hundreds of miles 

 with coarse grass' and scrub growth. Such is the Soudan, and 

 the French and Belgian Kongo as far east as the upper basin of the 

 Kongo River and its tributaries, where another large forest area is 

 found. The Equatorial zone thus consists of two great forests, one 

 along the western coast of Guinea and the other in the center on the 

 upper basin of the Kongo River, divided by a vast treeless area. No 

 definite information exists about these tropical forests of Central 

 Africa beyond the fact that they contain many precious cabinet 

 woods, dyewoods, etc. 



Central and South America. 



MEXICO. 



FOREST AREA. 



The area of the forests of Mexico is estimated at from 20,000,000 

 to 25,000,000 acres of commercially valuable timber, or 5.1 per cent 

 of the land area. The forest area per capita is 1.8 acres. The bulk 

 of the forests apparently belongs to the Government, which works 

 the forests on a system of leases. 



COMPOSITION. 



The forests of Mexico are of two distinct kinds — the tropical forests 

 along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, composed of mahogany, Span- 

 ish cedar, rosewood, and other rare woods, and the pine and oak 

 forests of the mountains, principally in the Sierra Madre on the Pacific 

 side of the Mexican plateau. 



Of these two types, the pine forest is by far the more important 

 from the standpoint of the timber trade. These forests are very 

 inaccessible, however, and little is known about the character of the 

 timber, though some idea can be gained from the fact that a tract 

 of 1,000,000 acres, recently sold, was estimated to have a stand of 

 8,000 board feet per acre, composed two-thirds of pine, and one-third 

 of oak. This is probably somewhat above the average for the whole 

 area of pine forest. 



The species found in the pine forests are known as white, sugar, 

 and yellow pines, red and white firs, and many species of red and 

 white oaks. 



ANNUAL CUT, GROWTH, AND CONSUMPTION. 



The forest resources of Mexico have been very little developed as 

 yet ; the pine timber is very inaccessible and the tropical hard-wood 

 forests have been worked only to a limited extent for mahogany and 

 cedar. Figures on the growth of the forests and the wood consump- 

 tion are lacking. The annual cut of timber is givea at 225,000,000 



