NATIONAL AFFORESTATION 



inception. For all this, and in spite of 

 numerous warnings as to the pressing neces- 

 sity for tree-planting and the ominous signs 

 of a timber famine, little or nothing has been 

 done, save the holding of meetings by the 

 Board of Agriculture and the purchase of a 

 few hundred acres of waste land in Scotland. 

 To sum up briefly, the situation is this: Eng- 

 land's imports have rapidly increased from a 

 trifle under 3J million loads in 1864 to fully 

 10 million loads in 1906, thus showing an incre- 

 ment of fully 7 million loads in forty-two years. 



Most European countries have large internal 

 supplies of timber, so that, by a system of 

 conserving and protective tariffs, the pinch of 

 want would not be felt severely for years to 

 come. But not so England, which is almost 

 wholly dependent on supplies sent from 

 abroad. 



These are no idle words, but the records of 

 those who know well what they are talking 

 about; neither are the writers in any sense 

 pessimists. With all these warnings from 

 men whose business it is to study the question 



42 



