The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-12-25
RUSSIA TAKES LEAD IN
 ITS FORESTRY PRODUCTS
BY JoNATHA WINFIELD

depend in case of exhaustion of it's own timber, upon other nations or to de- termine the part which 1t plays and will play in supplying the demands of other countries for forest products.
 The forests of Europe occupy an area of 75,0O0,000 acres, which is about T per cent of the total area of Europe. The most wooded country is Finland, | followed by Bosnia, Herzegovina and | sweden. The least wooded are Portu- gal and Great Britain. The proportion forest decreases from the north and east of Europe towards the south and
 west. Russia. Finland. Sweden and Norway together possess 5S3,000, 900 acres. The forests of other countries, except fin few localities, are little ex- plored. In Asia the forests of Russia British Indian and Japan lead, show ing a total forest acreage at 5000, 900 acres.
 The forests of the United States, accord ing to ownership, are divided as follows National forests, 100, o00,0oO acres; state forests. S,ooo.ooe acres: private and unre- served public forests approximately 442,- o00, ,o00 acres.
 While government and state ownership of forests has invariably proved advan- tageous, yet the proportion of forest | lands, owned or controlled by the state cannot always be taken as a criterion of the state of development of forestry in a | country. The government may, for his toric or economic reasons, have only a | small area of It's own, but still exercise a great influence over the forests of other | owners. Thus Australia has only 16.7 ,pel cent of the total forest area under state ownership, Switzerland, 46 per cent, and i France 1.2 per cent
 | In the United States forests form less | than 29 per cent of the entire land area
 The area per inhabitant is about acres
 AS the forests of the United States arc
 cut for commerce, the stumpage area in- crcases rapidly. The latest and best esti
 mate of the stumpage of the United States places 1t at 2,5oO. o0,000,o0O feet | board measure. There is a cut of about | g, ,000, ,000, 900 cubic feet of standing timber
 a year, with an estimated growth of 1.
 cubic feet an acre annually.
 | According to department of agriculture | home consumption of timber in the United | States is larger than that of any other country in the world. The United State.
 exports annually about 2,e0,0oo,0O0 fee board measure, and imports approximate | ly 1,700. 000o0 feet.
 | A review of the timber trade, says MT
 Zon. shows a steady increase in woot | consumption the world over. The in ! crease in exports from Rusisa, Finland | dilu SWeuSu lb HetueQ III WtSlSIH
 to make up 8 growing deficit there, anC
 will not be a source of supply for thu | United States. Thus the tendency is to ward a greater overcutting of timber bl | the exporting countries, which, if con | tinped, will lead to a universal shortage
 with no surplus to draw from. This pic
 ture, gloomy as it may seem if offset b, | the birth of new economic fore; l movement toward the introduction of ra | .ional forest management.
 | If such management Is long delayed il
 the United States. 1t is said, the countr.
 will face the problem of slow conversion
 of scrubby woodland Into productive for
 est. thereby adding materially to tn cost of living.
 "The solution of the problem" MT. Zol
 declares, flor a good wood supply, is t
 begin now to prepare for making a di
 mnished forest erea supply an increases population.