132 REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 
much struck with it in other countries, such as Spain and Italy. 
In Eastern countries also the effects of denudation are most serious ; 
but in this country there is so much ornamental and other wood 
that I could not use the same language with respect to it as I do 
with respect to other countries.” —‘ But including even the orna- 
mental wood, and giving credit to it to the largest extent, is it not 
the fact that the total area under wood of any kind, ornamental or 
otherwise, is comparatively small in England?” “It is compara- 
tively small.”—“TI suppose you have sometimes consulted the 
Agricultural Statistics of England, a very valuable work published 
annually?” “T have.”—“ Is it not stated there (special attention 
having been devoted to the matter since this question has come to 
the front so much in recent years) that the quantity of timber 
standing in England is comparatively small? The total amount, 
as returned in the Agricultural Statistics for England, is only 
1,466,038 acres. Now, just for the purpose of furnishing a com- 
parison, I may state that in France the amount under timber is 
22,000,000 acres ; the amount in Austria proper is 23,000,000 acres ; 
the amount in Hungary is 22,000,000 acres, and so on. In the 
grazing lands of England 761,892 acres of timber are returned, and 
in the corn counties 704,146, which makes the total I have just 
cited for England at 1,466,000 ; which, taken in comparison with 
the 22,000,000 in France, 23,000,000 in Austria, and 22,000,000 
acres in Hungary, leaves a very beggarly result for this country 1” 
‘¢ Relatively it seems certainly a very small proportion.” —“ Scotland 
is returned for 750,000 acres, which is at or about the amount, is 
it not?” “It is; it is not much more at all events.”—“ Ireland 
is returned for 350,000 acres, which is 45,000 acres less than that 
country had in the year 1841?” ‘If so, that is a very grave 
matter.” —“ Is it not also consistent with your knowledge that a 
very considerable amount of cutting of timber is going on in 
England, Wales, and Ireland, without any attempt at reproduction 
of timber?” “T believe it is so in certain districts.” —‘‘ Therefore 
we may say that, with a steadily increasing annual demand for 
timber, which is constantly rising all over the country, the amount 
of timber in England, Wales, and Ireland is steadily, and I might 
even say rapidly, diminishing?” “ It certainly is rapidly diminish- 
ing.” 
‘You in Scotland have paid in the last century very great atten- 
tion to the cultivation of woods, and you stand for the last 25, or 
perhaps 40 or 50, years at about 700,000 acres ; something has 
