THE WOELD'S FOEEST SUPPLY 
19 
Venezuela, British, French, and Dutch Guiana, on the north, 
are covered with excellent timber ; so are millions of acres 
in Brazil, especially in Bahia, Minas Geraes, and the 
basin of the Amazon. The great forest of Matto Grosso, 
probably the largest in the world, may cover over 
500,000,000 acres, whilst the northern portions of 
Argentina and a large part of Paraguay are covered with 
extensive tracts of timber. 
As regards China, although little or no timber is found 
along the Gulf of Pechili, stone mile-posts having had to 
be put down on the railways because the natives stole the 
wooden ones for fuel, other portions of the country are 
well wooded, especially the central provinces, where 
magnificent pine timber is to be found. 
We may at a reasonable estimate, and from fairly 
rehable sources, place the forest land of the world at the 
present time at over 2,200,000,000 acres, an area nearly as 
large as Europe, about one-sixteenth of the land area of 
the globe, and sufficient to provide more than an acre and 
a half of woodland for every inhabitant. These look 
enormous resources, and at first glance would appear to be 
equal to any reasonable call upon them, but when we 
consider the constant and increasing consumption, when 
we reaHse that vast areas of forest in the United States, 
Canada, Norway, Sweden, and even New Zealand and 
Tasmania, which thirty years ago produced great quantities 
of timber, are now worked out, our opinion becomes 
modified. Large areas of country where forest once stood 
are required for tillage as the population increases, and 
this particularly affects countries such as the United 
States and Canada, where there is a large immigrant 
population, and millions of acres of woodland which have 
been cut down will never be replaced. Yellow pine 
(P. strohus), which thirty years ago was the chief timber 
c 2 
