of Minnesota, the Department of State of the United 

 States, its Ambassador at London and British officials 

 I have been furnished with a copy of the report on for- 

 estry by a committee of fourteen members, consisting 

 of various officers and members of parliament and des- 

 ignated as the Forestry sub-committee, Ministry of 

 Reconstruction, and appointed by the Prime Minister, 

 which report, after thirty-one sittings of the commit- 

 tee, was made -to the Prime Minister May, 1917 ; and 

 from that report the following facts are derived: The 

 committee estimate that, of the total area of 76,450,776 

 acres in the United Kingdom there were under wood at 

 the outbreak of the present war, in England and "Wales 

 and Scotland 2,752,500 acres, in Ireland 290,800 acres ; 

 total 3,043,300 or 4 per cent of the total area. The 

 annual yield from which is believed to have been 

 45,000,000 cubic feet or about one-third what it should 

 have been under proper management. Of this some 

 65,000 acres in England and Wales, 1,000 acres in Scot- 

 land, and 8,000 acres in Ireland, were under the control 

 of the Department of Agriculture and Technical In- 

 struction for Ireland. 



The United Kingdom is dependent for more than 60 

 per cent of its timber on the virgin forests of foreign 

 countries which are being steadily depleted. "For- 

 ests," the report says, "are a national necessity; the 

 country must have them even though they yield less 

 than the current rate of interest on the capital in- 

 vested." 



The committee estimate that "The area of land util- 

 ized for rough grazing, but capable of growing first- 

 class coniferous timber of the same character as that 



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