CHAP, i.] Forestry in Britain 5 



' In Scotland the county of Inverness accounts for 169,000 acres of 

 woodland. This area is far the largest in Great Britain. It is consider- 

 ably in excess of the surface returned as under all forms of crops or grass in 

 that county, and nearly equal to a fifth part of the whole Scottish woodlands.'' 



To look at Scotland alone somewhat more closely, the area 

 under woods and nurseries amounted to 876,250 acres out of 

 a total of 19,453,843 for land and water, or in other words we 

 find- 

 nearly one-fourth as much woodland as arable land (3,550,095 acres) ; 

 nearly two-thirds as much woodland as permanent pasture (1,338,249 

 acres) ; 



more than two-thirds as much woodland as land under corn crops 

 (1,297,231 acres); 



and nearly forty % more woodland than arable land under green 

 crops (638,794 acres). 



The timber and minor produce produced on this area by 

 home growth is, however, entirely inadequate to supply our 

 actual requirements, as may be seen at a glance from the 

 statement of Imports into and Exports from the United 

 Kingdom during the last three years, compiled from the 

 Customs Returns for 1892 * (see next page). 



Although from these Returns it is hardly possible to 

 eliminate all the classes of timber which it would be physically 

 impossible to grow in our climate, as, for example, the Teak 

 timber imported from Burma for the lining of iron ships, and 

 the Australian hardwoods used for street-pavement in London, 

 there have been left out of account the imports of Mahogany 

 (amounting in 1892 to 56,315 tons = 501,203) of Cutch and 

 Gambier (25,192 tons = 548,395), of Caoutchouc and Gutta 

 Percha (317,660 cwts. = 3,5oi, 923), &c., the supplies of which 

 must, under all circumstances, be drawn from across the sea. 



It would of course be absurd to throw out any broad casual 

 statement that, if the treatment accorded to our woodlands 

 were such as might be dictated by a better knowledge of the 

 laws governing tree-growth, and of the principles underlying 



1 Accounts relating to Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom, 

 December, 1892. 



