1885.] SUPPLIES OF TIMBER FROM ABROAD. 177 



FUTURE SUPPLIES^ OF TIMBER FROM ABROAD, AND 

 THEIR INFLUENCE ON HOME FORESTRY.— A REPLY 

 TO DR. LYONS, M.P. 



TOWARDS the universal attention now given to forestal matters 

 no individual has perhaps prepared the ground in a greater 

 degree than Dr. Lyons, M.P. for Dublin city, who has kept dinning 

 into official and other ears the economic and other advantages of re- 

 afforestation. Perfectly at one with Dr. Lyons and his coadjutors, as 

 to the practicability and manifold advantages of extending the 

 present 2^ million acres of woodlands in the United Kingdom 

 to probably three or four times this area, I cannot agree with him 

 that it will ever be economically practicable to have 20 million 

 acres under forest in these islands, or coincide in any way with the 

 pessimistic views as to future supplies from abroad which he has 

 given utterance to in these columns ; as the influence of probable 

 future supplies of timber from abroad will have the most direct 

 bearing on the success of home - planting, and as it is 

 especially important that the present enthusiasm on the 

 subject be guided in a sound direction, so as to avoid future 

 economic disappointments, inseparable from the production of 

 forest-timbers at home directly competing with the produce 

 of other countries within only a few days' cheap water-carriage 

 of our markets, and which also can be floated 250 miles or more 

 from the forest to the place of conversion and shipment, in the 

 country of production, for the same cost as one-eighth the 

 distance in this country. 



According to the Board of Trade returns, the average imported 

 supply annually for the five years ending with 1883 was obtained 

 from the under - mentioned countries in proportions as below. 



SAWN, PLANED, AND DKESSED TIMBER. 



Sweden and Norway, . . 1,561,461 loads, worth £3,659,415 



Prussia, .... 993,649 „ „ 2,375,822 



British North America, . 1,047,559 „ „ 2,650,179 



All other Countries, . . 297,222 „ „ 936,806 



Average total, . . 3,899,891 X9,622.222 



M 



