674 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Windsor forest. In Scotland, visits were paid to Edinburgh (Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, arboretum, and Forestry School), Dunkeld (Murthly 

 estate). Grantown-on-Spey (Seafield estate), Beauly (Beaufort estate, 

 owned by Lord Lovat), and Novar (Novar estate). 



While some areas were observed which have been in forest from 

 the earliest times (e.g., some areas of very old oak in the Forest of 

 Dean, and areas of Scotch pine at Grantown-on-Spey), by far the 

 greater portion were planted forest of various species, ages, and sizes, 

 ranging from new plantations to good-sized saw timber. In the older 

 forests, oak, Scotch pine, beech, birch, and larch are the principal 

 species, with these species and also Norway spruce, Sitka spruce, Doug- 

 las fir, Thuya plicata, and others represented in the more recent plan- 

 tations. Douglas fir and Sitka spruce under favorable conditions have 

 done splendidly in England and southern Scotland and are being used 

 to a rapidly increasing extent. 



The report of the United Kingdom, presented at the conference, 

 bears out the general assertion that democracies are notoriously back- 

 ward with regard to forestry practice, at least until the pinch of neces- 

 sity becomes sufficiently felt to stimulate the adoption of adequate 

 measures looking to the re-establishment of a forest cover on lands 

 chiefly valuable for that purpose. 



While the British Isles were formerly heavily forested, clearing has 

 progressed until it is estimated that today there is in all England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland only 5,180 square miles of forest, or 4.3 per 

 cent of the land area. In England the percentage of forest to the 

 total land area is 5.1, in Scotland, 6.0, and in Ireland, 1.5. 



Approximately 470 square miles of timber land was cut over during 

 the war, this comprising a large proportion of the mature coniferous 

 timber in Great Britain. 



As a consequence of this depletion, the United Kingdom has had 

 to rely to a very large extent for its timber supplies upon imports 

 from other countries, being the greatest importer of timber in the 

 world. The shortage of shipping during the war, however, demonstrat- 

 ed conclusively the extreme undesirability of having to rely so com- 

 pletely upon foreign supplies. 



As a result of careful consideration by the British Government, 

 measures are now under way which will in the course of time, restore 

 the United Kingdom to a more self-respecting position with regard 

 to forestry. Under the Forestry Act of 1919, a Forestry .Commission. 



