AREA OF WOODLANDS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 347 
XXXVII. Area of Woodlands in Great Britatn} 
In connection with the Agricultural Returns of the present 
year, special inquiries were made with the view of ascertaining 
the extent of land now occupied by woods in Great Britain, in 
pursuance of a recommendation by the recent Departmental 
Committee on British Forestry that a return should be obtained 
by the Board in continuation of that in 1895: The difficulties 
of securing an exhaustive return of all land under wood have 
been pointed out in commenting on the previous returns of this 
nature, but it is believed that the special pains taken by the 
officers of Inland Revenue in the distribution and collection of 
the schedules have resulted in rendering the present return 
substantially accurate. It is to be observed, however, that in 
some instances the inclusion of woodland areas, which were 
formerly overlooked, may tend to vitiate comparisons with 
previous figures for particular counties or districts, and may 
account to some extent for apparent increases in the areas 
returned.? 
The woodland area is now returned under the several cate- 
gories of (1) Coppice, z.e., woods, whether containing standards 
or not, that are entirely cut over periodically and reproduce them- 
selves naturally by stool-shoots; (2) Plantations, ze., land 
planted or replanted within the last ten years; and (3) “ Other 
Woods,” which include all land (not returned as coppice or 
plantation) used altogether or mainly for the growth of wood 
(other than orchards). 
Summarising the new returns geographically in the groups 
of counties usually adopted for the purposes of the Agricul- 
tural Returns, the woodland acreage of 1905 was distributed as 
follows :— 
1 Reproduced from the Journal of the Board of Agriculture for December 
1905, by permission of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office. 
2 The figures are given for each County in the Agricultural Returns (Acreage 
and Live Stock), 1905. Price 6d. 
