The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1882-06-24
The Worlds Timber supply.


The substitution of iron for wood in
many branches OF manufacture. more
especially in the case of iron vessels and
sleepers for railroads, has by no means
curtailed the worlds demand for tim
Der. The multifarious uses of wood,
the vast amount of building that is
going on in all civilized countries,
to say nothing of the rapid null
tiplication of all kinds of factories
bring us to face with the question: Is
the wood supply sufficient for prospective
requirements The United States and
Canada. as is well known, have been the
greatest shippers of American lumber of
late years, but time was when as many
as nine hundred cargoes of timber were
annually loaded at Memel for Great Brit
ain alone. Not only is the demand in
creasing, but. what is the most serious
features of the situation, forests are rap
idly disappearing, and thus far no eff
cacious steps have been taken in any
country to renew them. Sweden and
Norway were one time regarded as mex
haustible sources of supply. All the
great forests there were bought up by
English merchants and contractors, and
now these countries have partly to draw
their supplies from further north, and
import their oak from Poland. Northern
Russia, which was at one time an i'm
mense forest all the way from the Baltic
to the Ural Mountains. has increased its
cuttings SO rapidly that St. Petersburg
even has to bring its heavy lumber now
from the center of the empire. The once
great forests of Finland also are almost
cleared away. The forests along the Wis
lula and the Nieman, which may be con-
sidered as the sources of supply for
the great Memel trade. have receded,
we are told, to such an extent that il
is difficult to fill orders at Koenigs
berg, Tilsit and Dantzig. Germany
has upward of $4,000, 900 acres of for
ests, Prussia possessing the larger por-
ton, but their value is greatly diminished
by the inferior quality of the pine in the
northern provinces. Austria had mag
nificent forests formerly, and there still
remains to her 18,343,810 hectares. or
half as much more as possessed by Ger
many. These are mostly in Bohemia,
Galicia and Pennsylvania, and the fact
that they are so far removed from navi-
CATION renders them practically unavail-
able for the European markets. The
forests that once covered the eastern
shores of the Adriatic are entirely gone
Italy has considerable extent of forests
in round numbers, $4,000, 900 acres;
but the difficult nature of the passes in
the Alps and Apprentices render it impos-
slble to work them to commercial advan-
tage. Spain has some 8, 500, 900 acres Of
forests, but the woodman is hampered
here also by the nature of the ground.
Portugal, with good seaboard, has no
difficulty in getting rid of the small ex-
tent of forest land that now remains
that is to say, not more than 1000, 900
acres. Turkey has extensive forests in
Roumelia, near Constantinople, and also
in various parts of the Asiatic posses
sions; but the population has been-what
Turks proverbially are-destructive, and
no provision has been made for syste-
matte replanting. France figures for about
22,000,000 acres of forests. In Great
Britain the supply of home wood is SIM
ply nil; trees are there chiefly for orna-
ment; while in Ireland impoverished
landlords have ruthlessly cut down
woods that has served very important
meteorological purposes.
Let us now see the export capacity and
consumptive needs of the various coun-
tries: