Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/600

* LUMBER INDUSTRY. 534 LUMBER INDUSTRY. average area per capita is alioul two acres ; that the chief importers of lumber are Great Britain and Germany, and the eliief exporters Russia and Sweden. In Great Britain the annual importa- tion of timber has increased at the rate of 18'.l,'.)00 tons for the last thirty-five years, and at the rate of .'i.32,00 tons for the closing decade of the century. The price per ton for coniferous tim- ber increased from £1 17s. "d. per ton in IS'.i.j to £2 3s. 2d. in 18i)9. Of the timber imported 87 per cent, was coniferous, 3 per cent. oak. 3.0 per cent, mahogany, and other furniture woods, 3.6 per cent, house and door frames, 2.8 per cent, miscellaneous. In (Icrmany, in addition to the 4.000,000 tons of timber imported, there is an annual production of 38.000.000 tons of lumln'r from the German forests, of which 15.000,000 tons are used for timber and 23.(100,000 tons for tire-wood. It is estimated that about 4.000, 0(ll( pcopU' in (icrmany are engaged in work conncctc{i willi forest indus- tries. In France the annual production of tiie native forests is about 18.000.000 tons, of which 14.000,000 tons, mostly coppice woods, are used for fuel. forests are State owned. Mucli of the private forest land is overworked, and tlu; Director-Gen- eral of the State Forests has publicly stated that the standing crop of timber is some 30 per cent, below the <iuantity necessary to maintain a per- manent annual cut as large as that at present taken out of the forests. As to the Russian for- ests, great dillerence of opinion jjrcvails among experts. Monsieur Melard, French Inspector of Forests, in his pamphlet on The Iiisu/liciciici/ of the Production, of Timber in llic M'orhl. published June, 1000, states that Russia's surplus supply is being rapidlj* exhausted and that by the middle of the century she will have no more than is required for home consumption. On the other hand, the Director-General of the Russian State Forests ailinns that the utilization of the Rus- sian State forests is considerably below the annual growth, and Russia will, for a long time to come, be able to keep up its production. This refers only to the State forests, or 314,000,000 acres out of a total of ,510,000,000. The private _ forests have been badly overworked in recent years. Moreover, much of the area put down as T^BLE VI,— Area of Edroheax Forests axd Net Imports or Exports op Lumber is European Countries • Area f>f forests PercentaEP lit total area in forest, land Percentage of forest area be- longing to State Acres of forest land per capita Tons im- ported annualtj, net Tons exported annually, net Value in dollars Imports Exports 48,000.000 n,(]i«),ooo 516.0(X).000 G.790.01H) 10,650,000 20.960.000 22.42(1.000 23,990,0(]0 2,390,000 6,030,000 2.030,(KH) 190,0(KI 2,100,000 34,490.000 23.530.000 10.110.000 COO.OOO 3,030,000 l,2.'i0,000 770,000 570,000 6,180,000 44 21 40 .53 45 17 28 32 20 17 16 30 20 26 18 14 6 4 17 3 7 8 27 12 61 70 84 16 7 47 80 4 33 12 i 5 8 8.9 8.4 5.9 4.9 3.2 1.3 1,3 1,0 1.0 1.0 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 4,460,000 1,040,000 6,900, 00 38.619,000 9,107,000 4,334,000 Bosnia* Herzegovina. 50,000 220,000 244,000 5,723,0(X) 3,670,000+ 60,606 62,596,000+ 16,000 731 633,'oci6 2,873,000 72,174,000 14,8iJ4,000 6,088,000 6.088.000 108.066,000 19,967,000 974,000 3,506,000 877.(XI0 35,000 170,000 4,600,0(X) 1.230.000 420,(100 470,000 9.2',«l.0(«l 1,020,000 60.000 180,000 Italy

Holland Turkey Total 758.080,000 31 2 17,760,000 15,130,000 245.607,000 101,126,0(X) •Averape data cnllectpd from the anniial returns for 1896-1900. whenever available. + Including Hungar.v. Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Turning from the importing to the exporting countries of Europe, we find that in Norway about 1,400.000 tons of lumber are annually manufactured into paper-pulp. During the last ten years the amount exported has .sliglitl.v fallen ofT, and all authm-ities are agreed that the Nor- wegian forests have been overworked. Only about 12 per cent, of the forest area is under Govern- ment centred. In Norway and in Sweden the forests are situated in such a high latitude that growth is slow. In Sweden, however, (me-fourth of the 48.000.000 acres of forest land is owned by the State and is under efficient State man- agement. The cutting of trees less than 8 inches in diameter .5 feet from the ground is forbidden everywhere. The manufacture of paper-pulp and cellulose is rapidly increasing and annually con- sumes aboiit 1,000,000 tons of coniferous timber. In Austria-Hungary about 20 per cent, of the forest land is composed cjf swampy or other tracts where merchantable timber does not grow. Considering, last of all, the lumber trade anil timber-supply of Asia. Africa. Australia, ami South America, we find that their annual imporls exceed their exports ten times. (See accom- panying table.) China and Egypt have little wood. The remaining importing countries ;iv extensive unworked forests, especially Australii. Japan has her forests under systematic mana;.'c- mcnt and imports comparatively little. India exports teak and some furniture wood, and can do little more, since she has but 140.000,000 acres of forest land to supply a home population of about 300.000.000 people. The other regions ex- port chiefly mahogany and other furniture woocN. It appears that the supply of hard and otlur tropical woods is abundant to meet the demands of the lumber trade for years to come, and that