THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 3 



The lecturer went on to say that it happened that the article 

 of greatest consumption — sawn fir — was one that could be most 

 readily produced in this country. We had neglected to grow it, 

 and consequently had not only sacrificed, as producers, the 

 profit which we might have secured by timely foresight, but we 

 had to pay far more dearly as consumers. 



Competition of Foreign Consumers. 



If anybody thought that there was no cause for anxiety, that 

 it did not matter where we got our timber so long as we were 

 able to pay for it, let him lay to heart the warning uttered by 

 the Departmental Committee on Forestry, who reported in 

 1902: — "The world is rapidly approaching a shortage, if not 

 an actual dearth, in its supply of coniferous timber, which con- 

 stitutes between 80 and 90 per cent, of the total British timber 

 imports." Coniferous timber rose 22 per cent, in price during 

 the twenty years from 1885 to 1905. A plentiful supply of 

 ■coniferous timber was indispensable to all our principal industries. 

 How many of these industries could be carried on at a profit, 

 if, in the next twenty years, timber rose another 22 per cent.? 

 And everything pointed to such a contingency. There was a 

 rapidly growing demand for an article of which the supply was 

 running short. Some of our former sources of supply were 

 already cut off. Thirty years ago we were drawing large 

 supplies of timber from the German Empire. During that 

 period the industrial expansion of Germany had been so great 

 that, although the annual value of her forests was reckoned at 

 twenty-two millions sterling, she now required every stick of their 

 yield for her own consumption. Not only so, but she had entered 

 into competition with us as a purchaser, importing about 4,500,000 

 tons per annum of foreign timber, valued at ^15,000,000. As 

 with Germany, so with the United States and Canada, where 

 the forests were long considered to be inexhaustible, and 

 doubtless would have proved so but for reckless lumbering. 

 In all the circumstances, it was difficult to conceive anything 

 more economically urgent than that steps should be taken 

 without delay to develop our own neglected forestry resources. 

 It might surprise some people to learn that Great Britain was 

 the most treeless country in Europe. Certainly, far more 



