REQUIREMENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM 39 



tion of such timber which are not found in Great Britain 

 or Ireland. For the latter countries to inaugurate a forest 

 policy, which has for its primary object the production of 

 third and fourth rate spruce and Scots pine timber, at 

 a far greater cost per load than that incurred by the 

 principal countries of export, appears to be a very ques- 

 tionable procedure. As will be shown in a later chapter, 

 an extensive afforestation of mountain land, the only class 

 likely to be available on a large scale in the United King- 

 dom, could only be accomplished at a relatively high 

 cost, while the yield from such land could, under the 

 existing soil and climatic conditions, be but comparatively 

 small in quantity, and inferior in quality. Only by the 

 afforestation of the poorer classes of agricultural land, 

 with perhaps a certain proportion of the better class of 

 grazed mountain, could timber of sufficient size and 

 quality be produced to enable the cost of production to 

 be repaid, and the most urgent requirements of the 

 country to be met. Even in the event of a shortage in 

 small timber within the next forty or fifty years, it is 

 obvious that such a shortage could not be made up 

 by increased afforestation in a shorter period than half a 

 century on the poorer land in question, and if afforesta- 

 tion is necessary at all for such a purpose, it is equally 

 important that the period of production should be 

 shortened as much as possible. Little could, therefore, 

 be gained from the expenditure of large sums of money 

 in the planting of inferior soils, beyond what is desir- 

 able for the improvement of social and residential con- 

 ditions in hill districts. 



The following article on the commercial aspect of 

 afforestation appeared in the Timber Trades Journal of 

 February 6, 1909, and has such a close bearing upon 

 this subject that it is worth reproducing in full : — ■ 



This important question, which is gradually forcing 



