WAR'S DESTRUCTION OF BRITISH FORESTS 



1031 



68 trucks of sawn timber per day to France alone for a 

 period of six weeks or more, other Divisions also sending 

 their share. 



"The figures for pit-wood, barbed wire pickets de- 

 fence poles and telegraph poles and other round timber 

 are not available on account of the difficulty in col- 

 lating the different classes of material and the different 

 systems of returns throughout the country. But it may 

 be said that the 

 production also 

 was increased 

 enormously so 

 that, in spite 

 of the severe 

 res triction of 

 i m p o rts, the 

 country gener- 

 ally, including 

 the timber mer- 

 chants, kept 

 abreast of the 

 requirements. 



"Some idea 

 of the extent 

 of this section 

 of the work 

 may be gained 

 from the fact 

 that in c-ni 

 week the South 

 Wales Division 

 railed no less 

 than 8,ooo tons 

 of pit -wood 

 d'rect from the 

 woods. 



"I should say 

 that in round 

 timber our 

 principal de- 

 mand was for 

 pickets and de- 

 fence poles 

 owing to the 

 fact that the 

 South Mast of 

 England was 

 one huge arm- 

 ed camp and 

 t h e ir require- 

 m e n t s were 

 e n o r mous as 



well as those for France. In the output of this class 

 of material this Division also supplied its fair share, 

 as you may gather from the fact that last spring 

 we were called upon to supply 569,000 pickets in 

 two months and this was about one-half of one 

 huge order." 



A TYPICAL STAND OF SCOTCH PINE 



This timber situated near Orton in Morayshire, Scotland, indicates the size and the character of the stands 

 felled by imported lumbermen operating in Scotland. 



WHAT THE WAR HAS TAUGHT 

 The Earl of Selborne, an authority on forestry, made 

 this very frank statement, "There is no country in 

 which forestry has been more neglected than it has in 

 the British Isles. Now the experience of the war has 

 brought home at last, even to the Government of this 

 country, the immense importance of forestry. We were 

 dependent before the war upon imported timber to an 



enormous 

 proportion of 

 our annual re- 

 quirement, not 

 only for all 

 building pur- 

 poses, but for 

 all pit-props in 

 our mines, and. 

 as every owner 



f woodlands 

 knows, we who 

 own woodlands 

 found it very 

 difficult to sell 

 our product, 

 however good 

 in quality, for 

 any reasonable 

 price before 

 the war. Now, 

 suddenly in the 

 war, the Gov- 

 ernment d i s - 

 covered that it 

 isaverydanger- 

 ous thing to be 

 dependent up- 

 on oversea sup- 

 plies. The 

 shipping prob- 

 lem early be- 

 c a m e a c ute, 

 and it was soon 

 seen that a very 



1 a r ge propor- 

 tion of our 

 tonnage was 

 engaged in 

 bringing timber 

 to this country 

 timber for 

 building, timber 

 for mines, and 

 timber for pa- 

 per making. Very early they had to begin to curtail the 

 supply of tonnage used for this purpose; they began to 

 look about and see what there was in the British Isles that 

 could be used. They found a great deal more than any- 

 body believed existed here, and almost all of it has 

 been found to be of high quality, to be wholly suit- 



