EXTRACTS 



from the Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the Board 

 of Agriculture to enquire into and report upon British Forestry, 1903. 



"The present condition of existing woodlands has been 

 repeatedly and clearly reviewed by many eminent authorities. It 

 is the common verdict that timber of the kind and quality 

 imported in such large quantities from the Baltic and similar 

 temperate regions can be grown as well here as anywhere. That 

 foreign is so generally preferred to home-grown timber is in no 

 way due to unsuitability of soil or climate, but is entirely due to 

 our neglect of sylvicultural principles. It is hardly too much to 

 say that until within the last ten years or so owners of woodlands, 

 with few exceptions, failed to realize that the shape, size, and quality 

 of trees could be influenced by anything that they could do. 

 They seemed to imagine that the character of the final product 

 was largely a matter of accident, whereas it is mainly determined 

 by management, That the yield of our woodlands can be 

 materially improved admits of no doubt, and the evidence before 

 us unanimously favours immediate and effective provision for 

 bringing systematised instruction within the reach of owners, 

 agents, foresters, and woodmen. This has been on all sides 

 emphasised as the first requisite in any project for the improve- 

 of forestry, and consequently stands out as the cardinal point of 

 our recommendations." 



EVIDENCE OF THE EARL OF SELBORNE. 

 " I do not think there is any knowledge of the subject at all. 

 I think that landowners, the agents, bailiffs, surveyors, and the 

 whole heirarchy of people in England who have to do with land, 

 are absolutely ignorant of the very elementary principles of 

 forestry. They know how to grow a good tree for ornamental 

 purposes, but of what forestry means as a commercial pursuit they 

 have not the slightest idea." 



