Forests

Softwood Supplies.

The softwood forests are very largely confined to the cooler regions of the Northern Hemisphere, al though some conifers occur in the Southern Hemisphere. The present growth of conifer timber is about 8o% of the present cut. The forest capital is being depleted. The principal conifer regions are : (I) North America, including Canada, the United States, and the Sierras of Mexico; (2) northern Europe and cen tral Europe; (3) Asiatic Russia, Manchuria and part of Japan.

In Canada the total amount of accessible merchantable saw timber is estimated at approximately 61,5oo,000,000 cu.ft. and of pulpwood 52,000,000,00o cubic feet. The forests are being destroyed from two to two and one-half times faster than they are grown. At a total annual drain upon the forests of 5,000, 000,00o cu.ft., the accessible stands of virgin forests would be exhausted in about 25 years. In the United States roughly only 300,000,000,00o cu.ft. of softwoods of saw-timber size remain. Softwoods comprise two-thirds of the 13,000,000,000 cu.ft. of timber used annually and more than three-fourths of the sawed lumber.

Of the paper consumed in the United States, nine-tenths is made of softwoods. To meet its 1936 requirements, the United States cut about one-fifth more than grows each year. Alaska has great reserves of virgin timber in her coast forests and will contribute largely to the world trade. Mexico has about 20,500,000,00o cu.ft. of pine in mountainous forests at an elevation between 7,000 and io,000 feet.

Europe is barely capable of meeting its softwood timber needs. Just before the World War Great Britain imported 97% of the timber she consumed; France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands imported approximately 30, 47, 65, 77 and 82% respectively.

The only European countries that have any prospect of increas ing their output of softwood timber for any considerable period or even of continuing to export at the present rate are Sweden, Finland, Russia and possibly Southern Europe.

In Asia, only western and eastern Siberia are reputed to have enormous supplies of virgin softwood timber. Siberian forests, however, are largely unexplored, and little is known of their actual condition. Of the vast forest area of South America only 5% is composed of conifers. The bulk is in southern Brazil and adjacent portions of Argentina and Paraguay. The entire region produces only from one-third to one-half as much soft wood timber as Argentina alone buys from the United States and Canada. The other South American countries depend upon the Northern Hemisphere for much of their construction timber.

Africa, although it possesses extensive equatorial forests, does not contain enough softwood timber to furnish even the small amounts required locally for construction purposes. In Australia, the softwood supply is inadequate for local needs. Much pine, fir and spruce lumber is imported from North America, Europe and north-eastern Asia. The small area of softwood forest in new Guinea and the other islands of the Pacific is insignificant.

Lord Lovat, after a survey of the softwood forests of the world, arrives at the conclusion that, except in Russia, the main soft wood virgin timber reserves will be exhausted before very long, and Europe will have to depend more and more on timber raised by the agency of man; that the United States shortage is likely to come more quickly than that in Europe; that the more the American supply becomes centred in the Pacific coast States, the greater is the probability of the industrial States of north-eastern America coming into the European markets for saw-timber in the same way that they do now for pulpwood; and, finally, that as the United States consumes over 8,000.000,000 cu.ft. of soft woods, as opposed to a total European consumption of 9,000, 000,000 cu.ft., the United States advent into European markets will have an important bearing upon European prices.

Temperate Hardwoods Supplies.

Like the conifers the temperate hardwoods are confined chiefly to the Northern Hemis phere and are located fairly close to consuming centres. They as a rule occupy the better soils of the more favourably situated lands and, therefore, have been progressively destroyed to make room for cultivation. The large old timber has been depleted even to a greater extent than that of the softwoods. Europe has still extensive areas of hardwood forests and even exports special kinds, such as the oak of Poland and Yugoslavia. On the whole, however, the consumption of hardwoods in Europe greatly ex ceeds the production. In Asia, Japan exports small quantities of oak. Walnut and other hardwoods are exported from Asiatic Turkey and the Caspian region. Siberia has about 30% by area of the temperate broad-leaved forests of the world. Except in the Far East, however, they consist of fairly light stands of aspen and birch, much of it valuable chiefly for firewood or pulp and not to be compared with the hardwoods of the United States and Europe. In North America the United States now has the largest supply of temperate hardwoods. The other North Ameri can regions have no surplus over their own needs. The original stand of approximately 250,000,000,00o cu.ft. of merchantable hardwoods has dwindled to about one-half of that amount and is being further depleted at the rate of over 5,000,000,000 cu.ft.

a year. The United States uses nearly 3,000,000,00o cu.ft. of hardwood timber a year, exclusive of firewood, or almost one half of the entire world consumption of temperate hardwood timber. In the temperate region of the Southern Hemisphere in cluding southern Chile and Argentina, portions of New Zealand and Tasmania and the high mountains of South America and Africa, there are relatively small quantities of valuable hard wood timber, and little or none for export. The outlook for future supplies of hardwoods, however, is probably better than for soft woods, because woods adapted to the same uses can be got from the tropical forests, though they may cost much more. (R. Z.)