4 BULLETIN 1241, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
section, no reliance can be placed upon raw materials other than wood for the 
great bulk of future paper supplies. 
From the standpoint of national interest we obviously should not allow our- 
selves permanently to remain subject to the losses occasioned by the stoppage 
of imports of a product so essential to our national life as pulp wood. The 
possible stoppage of foreign pulp and paper supplies, from any one of a number 
of causes, would be equally objectionable to our industries, and would also work 
serious public hardship. In case of a permanent stoppage of such imports, the 
time within which they could be replaced at home becomes a factor of great 
importance. With domestic timber available we might enlarge our pulp and 
paper industry to almost any extent required within 10 years at the most, but 
to grow the timber needed would require from 20 years under the most favorable 
conditions to 40 or 50 }^ears in some of our forest regions. 
Both the quantity and the price of foreign pulp and paper are becoming 
increasingly dependent upon world-wide competition. Wood pulp is manufac- 
tured very largely from coniferous species. A recent study of the world's timber 
supply 2 shows that coniferous species supply nearly half of the timber cut in 
the entire world, but that they occupy only a little more than one-third of the 
world's area of forest land. Furthermore, the current growth of conifers is less 
than four-fifths of the cut. The critical world's timber-supply problem of the 
next half century at least will center in the coniferous forests. 
While the general demand for coniferous timber has been expanding to a 
total which exceeds the replacement by growth, the world's paper consumption 
has also been increasing with unbelievable rapidity. The world paper con- 
sumption curve in Figure 22 gives the appearance of a distorted vertical scale, 
until one realizes that the phenomenal rate of increased consumption in the 
United States has been approximately doubled by that of all countries combined. 
Along with this rapidly expanding world demand must be taken into account the 
limited amounts which other countries can supply. Sweden is already removing 
the full annual growth from her forests and Norway is overcutting hers. The 
Finnish forests as a whole are being overcut. Many observers foresee the limit 
of the expansion of the eastern Canadian industry. Apparently the only country 
in the world outside of the United States which offers the opportunity for a long 
sustained increase in pulp-wood supplies commensurate with the increasing world 
demands is Russia, including Siberia, and a large part of the Russian forests are 
inaccessible. 
A reconstructed Europe will need more paper than it can purchase now. 
New paper markets are being created. The reawakening of the Near Fast and 
the Orient, the development of Latin America, the settlement of the parts of the 
world heretofore unoccupied, are all accompanied by increased requirements for 
paper. If, therefore, the United States elects to depend upon foreign supplies, 
we must look forward to increasing world competition, higher prices, and re- 
stricted amounts in years to come, even though there is no conscious effort by 
foreign countries or industries to shut off our imports or control their prices. 
The part of our own land area which is v aluable only for timber production 
should bo used in ways which will contribute most largely to our national pros- 
perity. Regions with large areas of forest land can be made centers of 1 he 
same permanent development as areas of rich agricultural lands. Both produce 
crops which differ only in kind. A thming timber-growing industry is as basic 
in its character as agriculture. Upon timber crops can be founded permanent 
local wood-using industries, such as pulp and paper manufacture. Timber 
growing and ils dependent wood-using Industries Can supply the livelihood for 
a large rural population of the character that adds 80 great 1\ to national strength. 
• Fori I i; the World, by Zon and Sparhawk. 
