1034 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



part of last century have borne good fruits, for although 

 the Crown woods were formerly managed chiefly with 

 a view to producing hardwoods, and the more recent 

 coniferous plantations are not old enough to yield mer- 

 chantable timber, there have been set aside, in the New 

 Forest and Windsor woods alone, since the outbreak of 

 war, and are felled or in process of felling some three 

 and a half million cubic feet of large coniferous timber 

 and approximately one hundred thousand tons of pit- 

 wood. 



FUTURE FOREST ACTIVITY 



Great as has been the sacrifice of forests and wood- 

 lands by Great Britain it has not been in vain for knowl- 

 edge of her weakness in timber resources forced upon 

 her by the war has led to a movement that assures more 

 forest activity in the future than she has ever exper- 



United Kingdom having regard to the experience gained 

 during the war. 



In view of the fact that a national lumber and forest 

 policy for the United States is now being earnestly advo- 

 cated it is well worth noting that this British forestry 

 reconstruction committee in its report to Parliament 

 states that the British forest policy has been totally 

 inadequate; that dependence on imported timber is a 

 grave source of weakness in war; that the supplies 

 of timber even in times of peace, are precarious and lie 

 too much outside the Empire. These conclusions, the 

 committee states, are not only the best reasons for ex- 

 tensive planting but afforestation would increase the pro- 

 ductiveness and population of large areas of the British 

 Isles which are now little better than waste. 



The committee presents a summary of its main con- 



British Official Photograph 



CHARCOAL FOR THE BRITISH TRENCHES 



The charcoal made in the French forests leased by the British were packed in bags by Indian labor troops and sent to the front on the narrow 



guage railways so generally used by the armies for transportation. 



ienced in the past. Plans have already been made and 

 are rapidly nearing completion, for the reforestation of 

 her cut over areas and for the planting of great areas of 

 waste land suitable for nothing except the growing of 

 timber. A committee of distinguished men, after a care- 

 ful survey of the situation, has submitted to Parliament 

 a report and recommendations which undoubtedly will 

 be the basis of the future forestry program in the British 

 Isles. This committee was commissioned to consider 

 and report upon the best means of conserving and de- 

 veloping the woodland and forestry resources of the 



elusions upon the forestry situation in Great Britain by 

 saying : 



(i) The total area under woodland in the United 

 Kingdom before the war was estimated at three million 

 acres, the annual yield from which is believed to have 

 been forty-five million cubic feet, or about one-third of 

 what it should have been under correct silvicultural man- 

 agement. These figures indicate the unsatisfactory con- 

 dition of British and Irish woods as at present managed, 

 and prove the urgency of remedial measures in the in- 

 terests of national economy. 



