REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 31 



that some form of export duty will be put upon it in 

 the round or unmanufactured condition. 



It becomes all the more important, therefore, that Great 

 Britain should ensure a supply of such timber as is now 

 being produced throughout Germany and other countries 

 owning State forests, which latter are worked on longer 

 rotations than the private individual finds profitable in 

 ordinary circumstances. To produce the whole of this 

 class of timber now required at home is practically im- 

 possible, unless an area is devoted to that purpose which 

 would seriously interfere with agriculture, for it is only 

 upon agricultural land that first or second class timber 

 can be grown in Britain. But it should become a settled 

 policy in the administration of the country that a forest 

 area, capable of producing first-class timber in sufficient 

 quantities to meet the requirements of the staple in- 

 dustries of the country, such as agriculture, house- 

 building, and the numerous minor industries associated 

 with civilisation, should be gradually formed and main- 

 tained. What exactly this area should be is a question, 

 but if the population found upon three-fourths of the 

 British Isles be taken as the natural stock which has 

 been created by the normal development of its agri- 

 cultural resources, independently of minerals and colonial 

 intercourse, a forest area sufficient to meet the needs 

 of about 20,000,000 would be required, representing 

 a density of about 200 head per square mile, or 30 to 40 

 per 100 acres. Basing the requirements of this population 

 in hewn and sawn timber on the estimate of 5 to 10 cubic 

 feet per head, or one-eighth of a load ( = 60 cubic feet of 

 round timber), an annual supply of 2,500,000 loads 

 would have to be grown on about 5,000,000 acres of good 

 forest land, supposing the ground were sufficiently good 

 to produce 30 cubic feet of first-class timber to the acre. 

 But to allow for waste, roads, margins, and fences, con- 



