G4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



home or abroad. It is a well-known fact that the area 

 of cultivated land in the United Kingdom is insufficient 

 to maintain the present population of over 40,000,000 

 in corn and meat. The home supply of all classes 

 of farm produce is said to possess a value of about 

 £150,000,000, while the supply from the colonies and 

 foreign countries amounts to £120,000,000. It is evident, 

 therefore, that the home deficiency could not be made up 

 by any possible increase in cultivation, for although tillage 

 might be extended on land now under pasture, and an 

 increased yield of corn and meat obtained, the nett 

 increase could not make good a deficiency of some 

 10,000,000 tons of produce. It would appear, therefore, 

 that the requirements of the country in both timber and 

 food are greater than the available area can supply on 

 economic principles, and it becomes a question as to 

 which class of produce can be most easily imported in the 

 future at the lowest cost. 



Timber, as already pointed out, is not a commodity 

 likely to be artificially grown as a speculation on a large 

 scale by either public or private agency. Farm crops, 

 on the other hand, are raised on an extensive scale 

 by individual traders wherever the conditions aftbrd 

 facilities for their cultivation, and prices are sufficiently 

 high to repay the cost and labour involved. North 

 and South America, Australia, and South Africa, not to 

 mention India, Russia, etc., produce meat or corn in 

 excess of their own requirements, while enormous areas 

 of undeveloped land still remain for future cultivation. 

 The probabilities are, therefore, that large timber will 

 become a more costly commercial commodity than food 

 in the future, apart from temporary disturbances of the 

 world's markets. The two main reasons for arriving at 

 this conclusion are that a timber industry cannot be built 

 up quickly enough to meet suddenly arising demands or 



