Italy's Need for Wood.

Progress, Volume XIV, Issue 10, 1 June 1919, Page 530

Italy's Need for Wood.

Italy will need unusual quantities of timber after the war. Authorities estimate that in the first five years of peace that nation must import from three to to five times as much as it imported per year in the pre-war period, and for the ten years succeeding these five years, about double the annual prewar imports. In other words, Italy will require for the first five years 3,000,000,000 to 5,000,000,000 board. feet of rough and square lumber per year, and 2,000,000,000 per year for ten years following this period. The longer the war is prolonged the greater will be the demand, and another factor will be the. price at which lumber can be laid down in Italian ports.

Temporary construction for war purposes has required great quantities of lumber in Italy, while the difficulties attending the importation of lumber and the lack of coal within the country have made it necessary to use enormous amounts of wood for fuel.

State forestry began in Italy about 1877, the country being almost forestless until the State took hold. From forests and wood lots existing at the beginning of the war, it is estimated that approximately 50 per cent, of all standing timber has been cut to date.

Before the Avar except for small quantities of black wallnut from the United States, and a little cabinet wood, all the imports were of cheap commercial lumber, coming mostly from Austria-Hun-gary and the United States. The chief source of supply was Austria-Hungary, but since the war none has been secured from that source.

The building situation in Italy has been peculiar for centuries. Scarcity of lumber for hundreds of years has brought about methods of construction in which a minimum of lumber is used.

Beds of excellent clay suitable for brifk and tile making, good building stone and limestone capable of yielding fine qualities of lime and cement are found in almost every part of Italy. Added to this a surplus of labour before the Avar kept wages at a point that made stone and brick construction possible at prices that would seem incredibly low in new countries. "Wooden houses are more common along the northern frontier of Italy, in districts near the forests of Switzerland and AustriaHungary, Avhere wood is plentiful and comparatively cheap.—" American Forestry.'