July i8, 1918] 



NATURE 



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this wood for the purpose was afterwards alto- 

 gfether eclipsed by its introduction into the con- 

 stioiction of aeroplanes. ,The country is now being 

 ransacked for ash of high quaHty, and the price 

 has greatly increased. 



During the first eighteen months of the war 

 the hutting of the New Armies absorbed large 

 amounts of soft timber, the material consisting 

 mostly of imports. With the improvement in 

 trench construction, dug-outs, lines of communi- 

 cation, and so forth, large orders for sleeper 

 material, planks, etc., had to be fulfilled, and 

 considerable areas of old forest and young pole 

 forests were felled (the pole woods at a sacrifice). 

 The latter were used for wire-entanglement posts, 

 field telephones, corduroy roads, and gun-pits, of 

 which numerous illustrations have appeared in the 

 pictorial Press. Packing cases for stores also ab- 

 sorbed large amounts of wood. Later on a new 

 demand arose : for the building of the net- 

 work of light railways behind the front sleepers 

 were required in enormous num]3ers, and by 

 then we had been driven almost entirely to 

 rely on our own home woods, inadequate 

 and poorly grown as they were, and such 

 areas of forest in France as our Ally made 

 over to us. In Great Britain we have become 

 acquainted with Canadian and Newfoundland 

 lumbermen and their methods, with Portuguese, 

 German prisoners, and others, companies of whom 

 are at work throughout the length and breadth of 

 the country. 



Many ask. What is to be the end of it all? The 

 answer is not. difficult. W'e shall have to be pre- 

 pared to sacrifice all the woods in this country 

 which are commercially exploitable. This is the 

 present position. .If the war lasts long enough 

 they will go into the war furnace and the material 

 be lost to us so far as any future, utility is obtain- 

 able from* it. If the war comes to an end in the 

 latter part of this year or earlv next year, still the 

 balance will have to go in the course of a few 

 years. .For the demand for timber after the war 

 will be as great for some years, so far as can be 

 foreseen, as it is at present, and the supplies, . 

 owing to tonnage difficulties, short of the demand. 

 Practically all our timber-using industries, where 

 not employed on war work, are non-existent, of 

 which house-building occupies a prominent posi- 

 tion. W'e are all aware of the difficulties with 

 which the paper trade, publishers, and the Press 

 have, to contend. These troubles have become 

 chronic. It will be necessary to restart all these 

 industries after the war. Timber prices will remain 

 high, and fellings. in our home woods will have 

 to continue to help supplies. This is the present 

 position so far as it can be foreseen. 



Now as to future prospects. From what has 

 been already said it is obvious that British woods 

 will only be able to supplement the supplies which 

 will be required during the period immediately 

 following the peace. Even if we undertake, as 

 it is to be hoped we shall, a large afforestation 

 scheme in these islands when the war is over, 

 the woods will not yield pit wood before twenty 

 NO. 2542, VOL. lOl] 



to thirty years after, formation, and timber in fifty 

 to sixty years. We require, therefore, to make 

 some arrangement to ensure adequate supplies 

 during the next forty to fifty years. The old con- 

 ditions in the North European timber markets, in 

 which we reigned supreme at the outbreak of 

 war, will nonreturn. Some of our* present Allies, 

 previously nearly self-supporting, will be our com- 

 petitors in these markets in the future. What 

 arrangement is, then, necessary to ensure supplies 

 for the above period at a reasonable figure ? The 

 problem requires to be faced and settled at- an 

 early date. It is one of the urgent problems in 

 connection with reconstruction, work. In the past, 

 Russia, Norway, and Sweden sent us the bulk of 

 our imports of soft woods, pine, spruce, and larch, 

 Russia being, the chief supplier. It is known that 

 Norway and Sweden are nearly cut out. A few 

 years will see their exports dwindle to a figure far 

 below the pre-war one. We shall have to face 

 comp)etition in markets which will be shrinking. 

 It is therefore imperative that new sources of 

 supply should be tapped. So far as Great Britain 

 is concerned the two countries where such new 

 sources exist are Canada and Russia. 



Canada.— Canada has long been looked upon 

 by Great Britain as a timber El Dorado. We 

 know for a fact that she has a gigantic reserve of 

 untapped timber. All agree that the Douglas fir 

 forests of British Columbia are magnificent. It 

 may therefore be admitted at once that we can 

 reasonably hope to obtain ,a certain portion of our 

 requirements from Canada during the period under 

 consideration. But there are certain factors in 

 this matter which should not be overlooked. The 

 chief are, first, the extent to which the forests 

 accessible to us — i.e. accessible from the point of 

 view of the price to be paid for the material — have 

 been cut out; and, secondly, the manner in which 

 the future great competition by America, who has 

 mostly cut out her gigantic forests and is an enor- 

 mous consumer of timber, will be likely to affect 

 the Canadian market and its prices. Canada and 

 Newfoundland together sent us only about one- 

 tenth of our coniferous timber and pit wood before 

 the war. In the future these imports may be 

 increased, but any increase must inevitably be 

 guided by the ordinary laws of supply and demand. 

 Canada, we may infer, will sell her material, or 

 the greater bulk of it, in the best market. This 

 market, because the closest, will be the American. 

 The timber imported from Canada in the pa.st 

 was practically all water-borne, cut on th3 

 banks of the rivers and floated out, this being the 

 cheapest form of carriage. The. freights on long 

 railway and road carriage would kill Canadian 

 timber exports to this country, since we coidd 

 not afford. to pay the price. Opinions differ a good 

 deal as to the amount of Canadian timber which 

 remains accessible to us — i.e. accessible at a price 

 we can afford economically, to pay. 



The other point, the competition with America, 

 is a more difficult and delicate one. In the early 

 years of this, century America endeavoured to 

 negotiate with Canada a preferential tariff on 



