72 Sir John Stirling Maxwell [March 16, 



larger. It is only fair to say that no one foresaw what enormous 

 quantities of timber would be consumed by modern military opera- 

 tions, and that there existed no reliable survey of the timber 

 available. K"o survey has yet been made, nor has any record been 

 kept of the amount felled. Under these conditions it is idle to 

 speculate how much remains. AVe can see that the quantities of 

 standing timber, especially of pitwood, are happily still considerable. 

 Perhaps it is lucky that they were not tapped earlier, since all that 

 remains may be wanted. 



One is driven to the conclusion that the least we can do in the 

 interests of national safety is to increase our area of wood sufficiently 

 to make the country independent of imports for at least three years 

 in an emergency. These islands, in proportion to their size, have less 

 th5.n one-fourth of the woodland possessed by France and Belgium, 

 less than one-sixth of that possessed by Germany. In making our- 

 selves independent of imports for a short period we are not confined 

 by the rule wdiich limits the annual fellings in the forest to a volume 

 equal to the annual growth. We can, in an emergency, at the 

 expense of the future, but without devastating our woods, make in 

 three years the fellings which in normal times would be spread over 

 fifteen. On this basis, the addition of a million and a half acres to our 

 existing woodlands would be sufficient for safety, assuming that the 

 areas felled during the war were replanted and kept properly stocked. 

 Even so, we should still be poorer in timber than any other European 

 country, except Portugal. A danger period is inevitable, when we 

 shall be very vulnerable by any power which can cut off overseas' 

 timber. Every year we delay making provision is a year added to 

 that period. 



Though the experience of the war will no doubt supply the 

 principal motive for adopting a policy of afforestation, there are two 

 other considerations, either of which might well be conclusive. 

 The first is the precarious nature of the world's supplies of coniferous 

 timber even in time of peace. The consumption of this class of 

 timber is steadily increasing all over the Avorld. For nine-tenths of 

 our supply we depend on the virgin forests of foreign countries, which 

 are rapidly Ijeing depleted. Unless a radical change comes over the 

 management of these forests, and especially unless the ravages of fire 

 are checked, timl)er will be very difficult to procure in sufficient 

 quantities seventy years hence. Steps to meet that emergency must 

 be taken at once. Unless the forests of Canada can be safeguarded 

 and made available, provision will have to be made in the United 

 Kingdom on a much larger scale than that indicated above. 



The other consideration is perhaps more in harmony with the 

 aspirations of the moment. These islands contain vast areas of 

 rough pasture little l^etter than waste and almost uninhabited. Can 

 no better use be made of them ? Every European country has been 

 faced by this question, and every country but this has long ago found 



