of the land area. In England the percentage of forest 

 to the total land area is 5.1, in Scotland 6.0, and in 

 Ireland 1.5. 



Approximately 470 square miles of timber land was 

 cut over during the war, this comprising a large pro- 

 portion of the mature coniferous timber in Great 

 Britain. 



As a consequence of this depletion, the United King- 

 dom has had to rely to a very large extent for its 

 timber supplies upon imports from other countries. 

 The shortage of shipping during the war, however, 

 demonstrated conclusively the extreme undesirability 

 of having to rely so completely upon foreign supplies. 



As a result of careful consideration by the British 

 Government, measures are now under way which will 

 in the course of. time, restore the United Kingdom to 

 a more self-respecting position with regard to for- 

 estry. Under the Forestry Act of 1919, a Forestry 

 Commission has been appointed for the United King- 

 dom, and an appropriation has been granted of 3,- 

 500,000 for its operations for a period of ten years. 

 This money is to be used primarily for the purchase 

 or leasing of land for afforestation, though other 

 aspects of forestry work will receive attention. Large 

 forest nurseries have been established, land is being 

 acquired and the program is already well under way. 



Resolutions were adopted by the Imperial Forestry 

 Conference which should result in much more atten- 

 tion being given the vitally important matter of per- 

 petuating the forests by wise use, in all parts of the 

 Empire. It is expected that the next session of the 

 Conference will be held in Canada in 1923. 



