1036 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



forest sites wherever possible in order to provide small 

 holdings for forest workers. Our proposals carry with 

 them the important contingent advantage that they will 

 cause large areas of the United Kingdom, now almost 

 waste, to be put to their best economic use. They will 

 also, if provision is made in time, afford the means for 

 settling discharged soldiers on the land under healthy 

 conditions. 



(7) Forestry demands long views, but the first fruits 

 are not so long delayed as many imagine. The policy of 



The care of forestry, now divided among several depart- 

 ments, should be centralized in this body. 



(9) We recommend that the Authority should be 

 authorized to make limited grants for every acre re- 

 planted or newly afforested during the first 10 years after 

 the war by public bodies or private individuals ; such 

 plantations to be made in accordance with approved plans 

 and conditions. 



(10) We estimate the cost for the first 10 years at 

 £3,425,000. It may be necessary to invest £15,000,000 



British Official Photograph 



CHARCOAL KILNS NEAR THE BRITISH FRONT IN FRANCE 



British soldiers attached to the forestry division making charcoal in one of the forests leased from France. This charcoal was used for warming" the 



troops in the trenches. 



State afforestation which we recommend will begin to 

 provide pit-wood, from the quicker-growing species on 

 the better kinds of mountain land, from the 15th year on- 

 wards ; by the 40th year the plantations made in the first 

 ten years alone will contain sufficient timber to keep our 

 pits supplied, in emergency, for two years on the scale 

 of present consumption. 



(8) The first essential is a Forest Authority equipped 

 with funds and powers to survey, purchase, lease and 

 plant land and generally to administer the areas acquired, 

 with compulsory powers to be exercised, when needed, 

 after due enquiry and the award of fair compensation. 



altogether in this enterprise during the first 40 years. 

 After that time the scheme should be self-supporting. 

 The financial return depends on prices, wages, bank 

 rates, etc., which are difficult to forecast. Forests are a 

 national necessity ; the country must have them even 

 though they yield less than the current rate of interest 

 on the capital invested. The whole sum involved is less 

 than half the direct loss incurred during the years 191 5 

 and 191 6 through dependence on imported timber. 



(11) The above proposals are framed in the interest 

 of national safety, which requires that more timber should 

 be grown in the British Isles. There remains a further 



