1030 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ber was authorized to take charge of all operations at 

 home, and to take possession of all the imported timber 

 in the country. He was responsible for the distribution 

 of all supplies, and was given the right to fix prices. 



By this process the Home Grown Timber Committee 

 was absorbed into the Timber Control. At that time the 

 Timber Committee had altogether in operation 135 dif- 

 ferent exploitations in Great Britain, as also 25 exploita- 

 tions by the 

 two Canadian 

 Forestry Bat- 

 talions. The de- 

 velopment dur- 

 ing this period 

 of the supply 

 of pit-wood was 

 such that the 

 imports from 

 France were 

 reduced by 

 <to,ooo tons per 

 month. 



The War 

 Office and the 

 Con troller of 

 Timber in the 

 meantime ap- 

 plied for fur- 

 ther assistance 

 from Canada, 

 but these men 

 were really 

 asked for with 

 a view of their 

 being transfer- 

 red to France. 

 Up till this 

 time it was not 

 possible to 

 c o m m andeer ( 

 forests, and as 

 c croachments 

 upon them were 

 becoming some- 

 what serious, 

 and as time 

 was of conse- 

 (|uence, the 

 G o v e r nment 

 authorized the 

 Con troller to 

 take such for- 

 ests as he was 



advised to select, and the owners were paid, failing 

 mutual agreement, the value of them as fixed by an inde- 

 pendent commission. At the end of about three months 

 the Control of Timber was transferred from the War 

 Office to the Board of Trade, and various alterations and 

 improvements were arranged in the administration. 



This larch at Birnam Hill 



A STAND OF LARCH 



Dunkeld, Scotland, is at an elevation of 350 feet, 

 stands similar to this. 



Meantime German prisoners and further Canadian lum- 

 bermen were enlisted in the work, and at the date of 

 the armistice England had purchased about 175,000 acres 

 and Scotland about 125,000 acres of timber land. 



In addition to the above there was a considerable area 

 of wood cut in the first year of the war, of which no 

 accurate record can be obtained, and altogether probably 

 about 400,000 or 450,000 acres have been felled in con- 

 sequence of the 

 war. 



As to pro- 

 duction during 

 the period, the 

 d e p a r tments 

 concerned ap- 

 parently have 

 produced about 

 18 million cu- 

 bic feet of tim- 

 ber, and the 

 Board about 

 280 million cu- 

 bic feet. 



A statement 

 of the labor 

 employed at the 

 date of the 

 armistice by the 

 Timber Supply 

 Department in 

 England. 

 Wales and 

 Scotland, is as 

 follows : Brit- 

 i s h subjects, 

 m e n , 7,717 ; 

 women, 1,734; 

 Canadians, 6,- 

 686 ; G e r man 

 p r i s o ners of 

 war, 3,486 ; 

 Portuguese, I,- 

 926; New- 

 1 o undlanders, 

 541 ; Finns, 

 618; Danes, 

 391 ; other na- 

 tionalities, 25 ; 

 making a total 

 of 23,124. 



A. P. Long, 

 Divisional For- 

 est Officer for 

 the three South Eastern Counties of England, says of 

 the production for war purposes : "We were subject at 

 all times to particularly heavy demands as the condi- 

 tions at the front called for, and as an instance I may 

 mention that early in 1918 owing to an exceptional call 

 there were despatched from this Division no fewer than 



Much of the felling was of 



