FORESTRY ACT AND COMMISSION 217 



form the Timber Supply Department to purchase and fell very 

 large areas of woods, and from 1915 to 1918 about the only 

 work done in the woods was the felling of as much timber 

 as could be obtained. Altogether, out of our scanty supply, it 

 is estimated as no correct figures are available that about 

 500,000 acres were felled during the war. Moreover, the areas 

 cut contained the best of our coniferous woods, and the areas 

 now left consist largely of coppice, inferior oak woods of little 

 value, and immature plantations. 



In July 1916 the position had become so serious that 

 a Committee was appointed, under the chairmanship of The 

 Right Hon. F. D. Acland, M.P., with Mr. R. L. Robinson as 

 secretary, ' to consider and report upon the best methods of 

 conserving and developing the woodland and forestry re- 

 sources of the United Kingdom having regard to the experi- 

 ence gained during the war '. This Committee issued a report 

 in 1918, and the following summary of their conclusions is 

 taken from page 4 of the report : 



(1) ' The total area under woodland in the United Kingdom 

 before the war was estimated at three million acres, the annual 

 yield from which is believed to have been forty-five million 

 cubic feet, or about one-third of what it should have been 

 under correct sylvicultural management. These figures indi- 

 cate the unsatisfactory condition of British and Irish woods 

 as at present managed, and prove the urgency of remedial 

 measures in the interests of national economy.' 



(2) During the five years preceding the war the average 

 annual imports of timber similar in character to that produced 

 in the British Isles were equivalent to five hundred and fifty 

 million cubic feet of standing timber. The home production 

 \vas therefore less than eight per cent, of the consumption. 

 The imports of timbers of all kinds during the years 1915 and 

 1916 were respectively three-quarters and two-thirds of the 

 normal pre-war imports, and their cost for the two years was 

 seventy-four million pounds, or thirty-seven millions in excess 



