754 



of the heath lands will not in any 

 way destroy their old beauty and 



charm. 



We think of England's great 

 commercial tree as the oak. not 

 only because of the spirit which it 

 typifies, but also because of the 

 great skill of the English lumber- 

 man and wood worker in adapting 

 it to the requirements of the home ; 

 and more than any other nation in 

 Europe England is a country of 

 homes. Oak. however, is a slow 

 grower, and in the Scotch pine, 

 which is a member of the European 

 common pine family. European 

 larch, and spruce, lies a more read- 

 ily realizable value. This does not 

 mean that England's great oak for- 

 ests will not be reconstructed and 

 amplified, but that the conifers are 

 more suited to the poorer soil and 

 produce common lumber for all 

 more general purposes. England's 

 greatest natural resource is of 

 course her coal. It has for years 

 been the one natural product which 

 she exported, as it were, in ex- 

 change for the food, cotton and 

 lumber which she needed. The 

 method of mining coal in England 

 and Wales is by means of countless 

 temporary tunnels which require to 

 be shored up with poles. The com- 

 mercial pit prop of England is a 

 pole less than four inches in diam- 

 eter at the small end and varying 

 from five feet in length upwards. 

 A pine tree 

 will last as 

 long as the 

 tunnel is need- 

 ed and as pine 

 is more rapid 

 of growth it is 

 much less ex- 

 pensive than 

 hardwoods. 

 .4*Another val- 

 uable tree in 

 England is the 

 American 

 Douglas F i r, 

 which in any 

 but a very san- 

 dy soil, com- 

 bined with the 

 natural moist- 

 ness of the 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ENGLAND'S PREMIER COMMERCIAL 

 TREE 



A fine mature specimen of Scotch Pine in 

 the old Crown Forest of Windsor. 



British climate, grows with such 

 rapidity and strength as to almost 

 outdistance its equally aged broth- 

 ers and sisters of our Pacific Coast. 

 In southern England as well as in 

 Scotland young Douglas Fir seed- 

 lings are greatly in demand to re- 

 place some of the old, overworked, 

 hardwood forests where the growth 

 has become comparatively unap- 

 preciable. Where there are no for- 

 ests to begin with, artificial plant- 

 ing of nursery grown seedlings is 

 most generally employed, although 

 recent experiments have been made 

 with direct seeding, more particu- 

 larly with that peculiar species of 

 sand-loving pine known as the 

 Maritime Pine of France. One 

 may see today along the downs of 

 eastern England near Ipswich, 

 great stretches of heath dotted 

 with tiny Maritime Pines sown 

 there with little care and fairly 

 glorying in an almost moistureless 



soil. 



Judging only from efficiency of 

 operation and practical results, the 

 success of Britain's new forest pol- 

 icy should be definitely assured, 

 but unfortunately the criterion of 

 accomplishment alone does not to- 

 day afford the basis of real success 

 or failure. Particularly amid the 

 present world-wide demand for re- 

 trenchment in all government as 

 well as private expenditures, only 

 a widespread and continued public 

 appreciation of that success and 

 the benefits to 

 be derived 

 therefrom can 

 guarantee the 

 continuance of 

 the essential 

 appropriation s 

 o r subscrip- 

 tions. That the 

 British public 

 is generally ig- 

 norant of the 

 splendid work 

 that is being 

 done for them 

 by their Com- 

 mission i s a 

 serious m i s- 

 fortune, and 



THE SITE OF A NEW FOREST Continued on 



Unproductive waste land near the East Coast of England which has been sown with i-rench p^^^ ^^ 



Maritime pine. 



